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Evidence Of Injustice

September 15, 2008 6:40 AM

In a joint investigation, 60 Minutes' Steve Kroft and The Washington Post's John Solomon report on a flawed science used in the convictions of hundreds of defendants, dozens of whom may be innocent.

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by old_salt1 September 15, 2008 7:34 PM EDT
Upon hearing bullet lead analysis "was first used by the FBI while investigating the assassination of President John f. Kennedy", I immediately thought of the book, "Official and Confidential, The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover" by Anthony Summers: it provides convincing information that J. Edgar Hoover "played ball" with the Mafia; they held him in check with blackmail supported by evidence about his personal life. Summers'' book doesn''t make reference to bullet lead analysis, but it seems that its concept could have resulted from the pressure Hoover put on his agents, "to get the Bureau''s assassination report out of the Justice Department ''"before Bobby gets back."'' Quoting Summers, "Edgar''s priority from the start was to protect himself and the Bureau and to insist that Oswald was the lone assassin."
In ''Official and Confidential'' chapter 28 begins with this quote from congressman Hale Boggs, House Majority Leader and former member of the Warren Commission, "Hoover lied his eyes out to the Commission, on Oswald, on Ruby, on their friends, the bullets, the gun, you name it...."
I believe this helps support the premise that under Hoover''s direction, in this rush to pin the blame on a loner/Communist sympathizer, etc., and while covering for his Mafia "friends", he''d have used any bogus evidence he could get away with, such as bullet lead analysis, while disregarding its lack of scientific basis.
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by ebony_ghost September 15, 2008 2:44 AM EDT
Passing bullet lead analysis off as science has got to be one of the most stupid ideas to come down the pike. If the manufacturer only made 50 boxes of bullets a day, they could be easily shipped to 10 different states. It''s worse than sad that somebody decided a fragment from one of those bullets could provide conclusive evidence that someone had fired gun. In keeping with the Rules of engagement, I won''t say anything insulting about that person or the numerous government employees and juries who used that evidence to hand out long prison terms.
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