Setback For Justice In Houston?

As water dripped down the walls of the crime lab on the 26th floor of the Houston Police Department headquarters, two overworked DNA analysts scrambled to keep up with a caseload in a county that was sending more convicts to death row than any other in the nation.

In addition to the scientific work, the analysts were helping interpret their findings for Harris County juries.

"We trusted they were doing a good job and the testimony that they offered was accurate," said Assistant District Attorney Marie Munier.

Then Houston television station KHOU began questioning some of the DNA lab's conclusions, and officials ordered an outside audit. After reading the results of the audit, which found significant deficiencies, including examiners who didn't have the proper statistics training to correctly testify, Houston's acting police chief suspended DNA work in December.

Munier is now leading a re-examination of 525 cases in which the lab was involved.

One man who had been sent to prison for rape has already been released because DNA evidence against him was wrong, and more cases are still in the testing stage. Prosecutors have flagged 62 more cases for retesting, including those of 17 death row inmates, though none of the 68 cases of inmates already executed were found to have involved DNA work at the lab.

"It's just like having the rug pulled out from under your feet," Munier said.

Questions about testimony and lab work have been raised in other states as well.

In Oklahoma City, a chemist was fired two years ago after an FBI report claimed she did poor work and provided false or misleading testimony. She denies the allegations and is suing to get her job back. In Montana, work of the state crime lab's former director is being investigated because of the exoneration of a man convicted of rape.

Houston's crime lab, however, is far busier than most.

Each analyst in Houston had 40 to 60 cases a month, compared to a typical caseload of 60 to 120 a year elsewhere, said Arthur Eisenberg, director of the DNA Identity Laboratory at the University of North Texas Health Science Center and a former chairman of the national DNA advisory board who helped establish FBI standards for DNA labs.

"To have two analysts for a city the size of Houston, in itself is criminal," Eisenberg said.

"The building the facility is in is seriously impaired and the laboratory has not been given the funding to train these individuals to a point where they have the necessary educational background to do the job they are required to do," he said.

The lab workers last attended a training session in 1999, said James R. Bolding, the criminalist who oversaw the DNA section. The Police Department has been trying to get the leaky roof repaired since 1995.

Bolding acknowledged mistakes could have been made by his overworked staff, but said he began voicing concerns to his superiors in 1998.

"We do not have sufficient funding," he said. "We do not have sufficient staff. We do not have sufficient wherewithal to do the amount of work that has come in."

State Rep. Kevin Bailey, who head a legislative committee investigating the lab, said Bolding's concerns apparently didn't reach anyone who could have taken steps to correct the situation, "or no one was listening when they did."

Police Chief Clarence Bradford said he knew about the leaky roof, but didn't learn of staffing concerns until last summer. The lack of documentation and training didn't come up until the audit, the chief said.

"I was as surprised about this as everybody else," said Donald R. Krueger, the crime lab's chief, who retired earlier this month. "I am not a DNA expert. I did not know we had these problems."

The outside audit concluded that the lab analysts' chemistry might have been correct, but that their statistical interpretation of results could have been skewed because they lacked training.

The DNA case retesting takes two to three weeks and only has been completed in the case of Josiah Sutton, who was 16 in 1998 when he was accused of rape. Sutton was sentenced to 25 years in prison on the basis of DNA results and the victim's identification of him as her attacker.

The new test excluded Sutton's DNA, and he was released on March 12 while his case is reviewed.

Sutton is hoping for a pardon from the governor so he can return to school.

"I have to put it behind me and think about the future," he said.

Bradford said he's unsure if his department will continue to conduct DNA analysis or will send it elsewhere. In the meantime, the city has a contract with a private lab to assume a portion of the police lab's duties.

Bailey said the city should have made improvements a long time ago.

"This is an outrageous miscarriage of justice," Bailey said. "It just should have never happened."