Since the discovery of Dookhans conduct, at least 1,100 criminal cases have been dropped or dismissed and at least $8.5 million has been spent attempting to account for her mountain of faked lab data. What remained to be a mystery for more than 30 years was finally solved via digital forensics in the early 2000s. He listed one cause of death as pneumonia, even though a suspect later confessed that hed shot the victim in the head. Police used forensic evidence found at the scene to track the thieves, which led to their houses. As in the Zhang case, network logs can be analyzed to identify mass movements or deletions of data and other suspect user activity. In hindsight, one might characterize the scandal as a logical offshoot of the very system which condemns its criminality. Over her career, Dookhan completed as many as 60,000 analyses, making her partly responsible for an estimated 11,000 criminal convictions. Photos were taken of critical evidence without scales in them to aid in measurement taking. The prosecution expert used "Cacheback" software that had a bug parsing Mork database files. A Question of Planted Evidence She could pass through borders with no apparent problems and was linked crimes in at least three countries. Apparently, old habits die hard. In addition to spending more than two years in prison for his misdeeds, Kofoed was slapped with a lawsuit for playing God with Sampsons and Liverss lives. The whole situation was a bloody mess and a complete forensic fail. One of the greatest tragedies in the criminal justice system is the conviction of a person for a crime he or she did not commit. While a police power struggle ensued, reporters flocked to the site of the murder to take pictures, and civilians soon followed. The appeal by Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito against their conviction for the killing of the British student Meredith Kercher took a significant turn yesterday when independent, court-appointed. 9. A final eyewitness named Marvin Simpson came forward five days after the murders identifying four completely different men as the killers, but the police failed to investigate these claims. The exploits of the 39th district eventually made media headlines in the mid-1990s. Rather, she had been faking test results at a rate of thousands per year. IDAHO, PETITIONER v. LAURA LEE WRIGHT. She then compounded the problem by testifying about her findings during criminal trials. However, EDTA is also a chemical found naturally in human blood and chemicals such as paint. Evidence Collection Fred Zains academic record does not reveal the makings of a person fit to wield a beaker, let alone work in a forensics lab. During the June 2011 appeals trial, experts uncovered the numerous flaws in the forensic evidence levied against Knox and Sollecito. " We are referring to the mother of all courtroom media spectacles: The People of the State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson. Although it was documented in his notes by Detective Mark Fuhrman, one of the first to arrive on the scene, no further action was taken to secure it. 1. The victim's sweater was found neatly folded by the truck. All seven were examined and proved inconsistent with his findings. The overwhelming evidence of lab misconduct has already resulted in the dismissal of 200 drug cases and reduced sentences in 60 more. In recent interviews with three prominent professors, www.forensicscolleges.com explored the impact of a recent bombshell in the community: a September 2016 report from the Presidents Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). [10] No one can say for certain how many innocent prisoners have been executed, died in prison, or served time for crimes that they did not commit. Acclaimed fire investigator and scientist Gerald Hurst found Vasquezs claims to be dubious and stated that there was no evidence to suggest arson. This case is documented as the first to establish the modern law of negligence. Those struggling used the extra drugs to frame innocent people. In the months that followed, investigators revealed a pattern of malfeasance and unprofessionalism that would tax and tarnish Delawares criminal proceedings. 8. During a Reddit " Ask Me Anything . district attorney drops or reduces charges in 67 cases over mishandled evidence Dist. Two people were convicted and imprisoned for that brutal affair: Michael Kinge and his mother, Shirley. Dr. Ralph Erdmann had a reputation as an excellent witness to call to the standif you were a prosecutor. Dookhan was indicted on 27 charges, including obstruction of justice for tampering with evidence, perjury, and even falsifying her university degree. But they may explain why Zain spent the duration of his forensics career habitually faking lab results and lying to courtrooms in order to secure criminal convictions. In 2009, the convictions were reversed by the Indiana Supreme Court. 3 Duke University Lacrosse Team. The Knox case. [5] Bloody shoe prints matching O.J.s size and pattern were found at the scene of the crime, yet no one could locate his shoes to prove that they were an exact match. Understanding Forensic Science One of the drug thieves, James Woodson, was hired despite allegations that he had stolen evidence from the New Castle Police Department in Delaware. In addition to the untold numbers of people who have been convicted on faulty evidence, a fair number of known violent drug offenders have also been released, leading to an increase in the crime rate and time spent rearresting offenders released because of fabricated evidence. It began during the trial of a suspected Oxycontin dealer, when the court discovered that confiscated drugs had vanished and been replaced with heart medication. During the third trial, the defense presented evidence that the initial blood splatter expert had falsified his credentials and had no history of working with blood splatters. Then state crime lab director, Arnold Melnikoff, reported in his analysis that the hair "had characteristics consistent with the defendant (Barry Beach)," a conclusion which was not . Beyond poor evidence collection techniques, sloppy maneuvering at the scene caused more bloody shoe prints to be left behind by LAPD than by the perpetrator. In addition to bearing the financial burden of revisiting tainted convictions, the government has agreed to award $1,000 for each hour of wrongful incarceration endured by an innocent person, leading to compensation for at least 25 people believed to have been booked on bad evidence. One of the most frustrating and heartbreaking docu-series in recent memory was The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez. A hair was collected from the sweater. Witnesses may be unreliable, and memories might be foggy, but scientific evidence doesnt lie. The appeal by Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito against their conviction for the killing of the British student Meredith Kercher took a significant turn yesterday when independent, court-appointed experts dismissed as unreliable forensic evidence crucial to the prosecution case. STORY HIGHLIGHTS. An important bloody fingerprint located on the gateway at Nicole Browns house was not properly collected and entered into the chain of custody when it was first located. Coupled with confessions from the murderers and DNA evidence, Williams, Adams, Rainge, and Jimerson were finally exonerated after 17 years in prison. 3The Philadelphia PD's Narcotics Unit Resembles A Mafia Operation Every city has ignominious chapters in its history that it would rather forget. The LAPD could not counter the idea of lost blood because there was no documentation of how much reference blood was taken from Simpson as evidence. A Canadian Pacific . The first decision to uphold the admission of DNA evidence in s tate appellate court was in 1988; before that, DNA was thought of as too inconclusive.Now c ourts have determined that DNA identification theory, practice, and techniques are widely accepted among the scientific community and therefore valid as . On April 27, a woman in eastern Brooklyn called the police. According to Officer Steve Anderson, who himself was caught partaking in the scheme, this translated into undercover narcotics agents handing over some of the drugs purchased during covert operations to officers who were struggling to meet arrest quotas. The defense noted several items that had gone missing, including a vial of blood from OJ Simpson. One can only hope that, in time, his legacy will evolve into one of wrongs righted by a wiser justice system, rather than the virulent injustices he authored. Theres no shortage of crime-fighting TV shows where protagonists brandish the latest forensic science techniques. After 36 years of appeals, the evidence was finally located on the top shelf of a forensics storage room. Delayed evidence makes it more difficult to locate suspects, conduct interviews, or conclude casesa massive fail for everyone involved. 4.1 Kimberly Long. Mishandled Evidence Should Have Prompted a Mistrial. How many criminals are walking free due to untested rape kit backlogs? For people seeking careers that are simultaneously challenging, meaningful, and exciting, it is tough to beat becoming a crime scene technician. Hearn said Pinholster, 58, is the only known example of evidence destruction in a case of a living death row inmate convicted in L.A. County. He spent 26 years in jail before a group called The . A woman who waited a decade for detectives to charge the man accused of raping her is the second alleged victim pursuing a complaint about Queensland police losing forensic evidence. A two-day appeal hearing which was due to take place next month has now been put. In some ways, it can be said that Dookhan was just giving her superiors what they wanted. On Tuesday, Matheson unveiled scientific evidence suggesting that Simpson's blood type matches a drop found on a "trail of blood" near the body of his ex-wife, and that her blood type was on a. And some of the labs forensic data is believed to have been falsified. As a private contractor, he performed more than 3,000 autopsies in 41 jurisdictions spread out over West Texas. The multitude of forensic science scholarships available to students is a testament to the viability of this academic profession, demonstrating promise within the field. Simpson murder case. Few questioned it when, in 2010, as her lab saw a drastic decrease in the number of drug analyses completed, Dookhans output skyrocketed, accounting for an astounding 31 percent of all the evidence processed by her lab10,933 samples in all. If handled properly, forensics can make or break any trial against dangerous criminals. With police performance measured in numbers of arrests, officers who failed to book enough criminals risked such penalties as being removed from undercover assignments. On May 3, 2007, 3-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared from her family's vacation apartment in Praia da Luz, in southwest Portugal. If evidence with Simpsons blood showed traces of EDTA, the defense claimed, then that blood had to have come from the lab, which meant that it was planted. In that moment, Lowry single-handedly torpedoed the prosecutions of at least 28 alleged drug offenders, many of whom are thought to be part of dangerous gangs, and he potentially compromised an additional 150 cases. The dropped charges. [7] More than 400 terrorist investigations may have been compromised by evidence lost in the fires. With a team of criminals and incompetents running the drug lab, unconscionable misconduct ensued. The Ford Heights Fourall black menwere tried by an all-white jury. He surrendered his medical license in August 1992, but the huge testimony fail he created is still causing ripples in the system. An investigation revealed that Dookhan had been dry labbing many of her assignmentsreporting results without performing the actual tests! Joseph Sledge, for example, served 36 years for a crime in North Carolina, but he could have been out decades earlier if police hadnt misplaced evidence from his trial. Her shoddy forensic work allowed 200 convicted defendants to be freed from custody while their cases were reviewed by officials.[2]. The world watched every detail of the case on Court TV, which highlighted the many mistakes of forensics investigators as an epic fail. The newer mitochondrial testing of hair is more expensive, but it does exactly match hair to a suspect through DNA. In 2004, the Indiana Court of Appeals overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial. Two Rome University professors said there was no certainty that traces of DNA, found on a knife allegedly used in the murder, belonged to Kercher. Frank Lee Smith, for example, died of cancer on death row, after serving 14 years for a rape and murder he did not commit. O.J. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. Drunk Police Officer. Erdmann pleaded no contest to seven felonies regarding false evidence and botched autopsies. Rachelle Jackson. During Camms trial, the prosecution stated that Camm had dual motives: a $750,000 life insurance policy and alleged infidelity. According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were 1,442 death row executions in the US between 1977 and 2016. Schmal had been raped seven times. (Credit: Hulton Archives/Getty Images) On the night of June 25, 1906, Harry K. Thaw, the son of a railroad and . Eric Garner. One of the most renowned cases involving problems with the chain of evidence was the O.J. The integrity of the criminal justice system is intimately intertwined with the belief that we can trust the analysis of crime scene evidence. An eyewitness claimed to have seen Dennis Williams, Kenneth Adams, and Willie Rainge in the abandoned townhouses where the bodies of the victims were found. In the state of Texas, Americas death penalty capital, forensic analysts weighing in on cases of rape and murder literally tip the scales in favor of life or death for a defendant. Coworkers at the medical examiners office had to work around the clock double-checking the fired technicians findings. Vendors camped at the site, selling balloons and soft drinks to the hundreds of visitors trampling around the crime scene. Changing that initial perception was going to be tough. Robinson was on-site at a Tucson facility in April 2018 when the FBI took the servers into custody pursuant to a federal warrant. Simpson We'd be remiss if we started our list anywhere other than the case dubbed the " trial of the century. But the sheer scale of ineptitude and invalidation wrought by this crime lab arguably rivals the grievous nature of the crimes it was tasked with solving. Going in, the public were already influenced by Simpsons likeability and star power as a pro football player and beloved celebrity. There's a case out of British Columbia called Regina v Hamdan that goes into some detail on the lack of proper digital evidence collection. Giving evidence to a justice select committee inquiry into failures to hand over material that have led to multiple court cases collapsing, leading digital forensic experts warned of funding . It was spring of 1989 and the then-50-year-old Chinese . Investigators exhumed seven bodies that Erdmann had testified about. 1. Simpson trial. Unfortunately, DNA testing proved him innocent 11 months after he died. At trial, several issues became evident, including: Roughly 1.5 ml of Simpson's blood was mysteriously absent from a container; The blood was not immediately entered into the chain of custody; In 2002, the facility was closed due to unacceptably shoddy lab work and, in 2008, an internal affairs probe uncovered evidence of cheating on lab proficiency tests, resulting in a second closure. Not only did several key witnesses against Mrs. Hall disappear forever, but forensic evidence did as well. A sample of 300 of his autopsy reports was examined by a panel of experts, who ruled that one-third of his patients had never been autopsied. But thats only the beginning. Six out of ten of the nations forensic laboratories have been badly burned by arsonists, with thousands of pieces of evidence ending up lost or damaged. Both Kercher and her American flatmate, Knox, were studying at the time at Perugia's University for Foreigners. How many innocent people are serving sentences for crimes they didnt commit? Although the jurists hold the law to be always fixed and certain, yet the discovery of the fact, they say, may From the Introduction. And, for a time, its Sapphire sex crimes unit was expected to be no exception. But the evidence of his wrongdoing, along with the actions of other Brooklyn officers, was enough to throw out 400 different drug cases and secure the release of over two dozen people wrongfully arrested on drug charges. A lawmans brother was later caught trying to sell some of the documents to reporters. The chance that blood found on Simpsons sock could be from someone other than Nicole Brown was 1 in 21 billion. The case caught a break in 2005 when the DNA of career criminal, Charles Boney, was matched to a sweatshirt at the scene of the crime. The government obtained warrants to search Mr. Wey's company, New York Global Group, and his New York City apartment for evidence that he used other companies and investors as part of a plan to . They added that a trace of Sollecito's DNA on Kercher's bra clip, the vital piece of evidence linking him to the murder scene, could have got there by contamination, as the defence team said at the trial. Over the course of an 11-hour interrogation, local authorities managed to force a false confession from Livers, who is mentally disabled and eventually buckled under the pressure and repeated threats of incarceration. Helmsman of the drug lab for nearly two decades, and himself suspected of professional improprieties, Callery had overseen a spate of irresponsible hiring decisions. "Even after the state Supreme Court threw out Ralph Armstrong's conviction based on evidence of his innocence, the prosecutor continued to withhold yet more evidence of his innocence." The Innocence Project got involved in Armstrong's case in 1993 and has worked on the case ever since with Wisconsin attorneys Jerome Buting and Keith Belzer. Whether its DNA testing, tool mark identification, bite mark measuring, or blood spatter analysis, its assumed that these methods are reliable, consistent, and valid measures of criminal activity. Some costs, however, may be incalculable. At the time, tests were not readily available to differentiate between natural and contaminant EDTA or the differences in the level of EDTA in blood. Machine Gun Kelly George "Machine Gun" Kelly was a notorious criminal during the Prohibition era, taking part in bootlegging, kidnapping and armed robbery. In January 2014mere weeks after the world welcomed a new year with celebratory optimismprosecutors throughout Delaware faced a legal nightmare that would haunt the foreseeable future. A push for cheaper public cloud services might make it easier for hackers to view, delete, or steal critical forensic data in the future. When his son failed to respond, he called 911. Both the LAPD lab and O.J.s Bronco were found to have been accessed by unauthorized personnel, giving the jury ample excuse to distrust the blood evidence that had been collected there. After pleading guilty to perjury, obstruction of justice, and evidence tampering, she received a prison sentence of three to five years, followed by two years of probation. In 2006, the lab rehired a forensic analyst who previously resigned under suspicion of falsifying data. One of the examiners most aggravating mistakes was the loss of an entire head, which contained a bullet from the killers gun. But, after spending two and a half years of a 17- to 44-year sentence behind bars for burglary and arson, Shirley Kinge was released. Both Knox and Sollecito were arrested and charged with Kerchers murder due to trace amounts of Knoxs DNA found on the kitchen knifethe presumed murder weaponand Sollecitos DNA found on Kerchers bra clasp. Guede was given a 16-year sentence after a plea bargain. Prosecutors misplaced most of the evidence, the autopsy report, and grand jury testimony records that would have pointed toward Mrs. Hall as a suspect. Webb would later recant his testimony, telling a reporter he was mistaken as a result of being on multiple medications for bipolar disorder. The case took a turn as there were no eyewitnesses and no physical evidence. (Evans, 2003) The time was 5:55 p.m. Simpson case can be found here. jails are located at 550 N. Flower St. in. Silk Road Case: Mishandling of Critical Evidence Mishandling of Critical Evidence As we progress through the digital age, courts are addressing questions of whether digital evidence is reliable. Experts also noted that while the alleged murder weapon did contain trace amounts of Knoxs DNA, it was curiously free from the victims DNA. For Zains many victims, exoneration and compensation are the only justice possible. This was probably the only case on record where criminals trying to steal old forensics were caught using new forensics.[4]. In short, forensic science depends not only on types of evidence with foundational and applied validity, but also on the dedicated efforts of ethics-minded groups such as the Innocence Project. In 16 cases, pieces of evidence were returned to the wrong rape kit, hindering 19 investigations. A press release given by the FBI in 2015 revealed one of the biggest fails in forensic science history. Vasquez also had claimed that Willinghams first and second-degree burns were most likely self-inflicted with the intent to avert suspicion. Such evidence should have resulted in an open and shut case by todays standards but was not made clear enough to understand at the time. Separate pieces of evidence were bagged together instead of separately, causing cross-contamination. Method used to test air for decomposition made its courtroom debut in this trial. In addition, eight officers were ultimately convicted for their crimes, reversing a longstanding trend of wrongfully incarcerating innocent people in the city of the Liberty Bell. What happened in the trial of O.J. HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The Houston Forensic Science Center says it fired a crime scene investigator after it discovered she violated policy and protocol, affecting two sexual assault cases. William A. When the prosecution presented hairs found in the back of Williamss car, Podlecki claimed they were consistent with the victims. For example, the Innocence Project aims to free the staggering number of innocent people who remain incarcerated, and to bring reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment. Founded in 1992 by Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck, it has helped to free 350 people on DNA evidence and identified 149 alternative perpetrators as of June 2017. Lauren. Cases involving computer forensics that made the news. All the while, she outpaced her colleagues in productivity, sometimes by a factor of three. Gerald M. LaPorte Westend61, Getty Images (see reuse policy). In 1989, the Harris family of Dryden, New York became the victims of a grisly murder. 10 Examples of Police Intimidation Cases: Wrapping Up. This faith in Zains abilities sent untold numbers of innocent men behind bars, primarily for rape and murder charges. Sadly, Willingham was found guilty and executed February 17, 2004. Detective Fuhrman was discredited by the prosecution when he was alleged to be a racist and accused of planting evidence. A Question of Character At the trial, James Grigsona psychiatrist known as Doctor Death for frequently recommending the death penalty for defendantswas called as an expert witness. For nine years, Annie Dookhan worked as a crime lab chemist in Massachusetts, performing drug tests for criminal cases. He blamed the situation on the deplorable funding for storage, coupled with low pay for overworked evidence clerks. Advocates from the Innocence Project are now working with the Department of Justice to develop a set of evidence storage guidelines that will hopefully be standardized across the nation in the future.[6]. But, like so many corruption cases, Lowrys greatest crime may not be one which exists on any US law book. Of course, the evidence is available for experts with trained eyes and the proper equipment, but the science isnt without fault. A major hurdle that the prosecution team failed to overcome was the lack of knowledge and understanding regarding forensics, specifically the relatively new science of DNA. Experts dispute key evidence concerning alleged murder weapon and Sollecito DNA on Meredith Kercher's bra, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Amanda Knox arrives for the appeal hearing in Perugia, Italy. On July 22, 1933, he and another man kidnapped wealthy Oklahoma City oilman Charles Urschel. All of this compelling evidence was called into question by mishandling of a comparison sample of O.J.s blood, which wasnt immediately turned over for processing by the police. The ensuing investigation resulted in guilty pleas from five troopers and a criminal conviction of the sixth. One piece of key evidence that was overlooked was Michael's navy blue shirt. Another witness named Paula Graya woman with an IQ of 55 who would later recant her testimony, thereby facing perjury chargesadded Verneal Jimerson to the attackers. Two years later, having been convicted only of kidnapping, Bundy was preparing to stand . A suspects laptop and cell phone can show evidence of a crime, motivation, or premeditation. In 2014, a group of police officers was apprehended after executing a vicious extortion plot that involved kidnapping, threats, and even holding criminal suspects out of windows. People are being sentenced to jail for life or are being put on death row. This was particularly difficult to achieve in this case. In a scandal that broke on the heels of extensive efforts to reform Philadelphias habitually corrupt police force, the officers of the 39th shocked the conscience of Philadelphia with tales of false arrests, evidence tampering, violence, and even theft. Theyd been stabbed multiple times. West Virginia alone paid $6.5 million in compensation to innocent people convicted by Zains deception, and the state of Texas shelled out $850,000. After spending 680 days in jail awaiting trial on murder and robbery charges, an Oklahoma City man was finally acquitted late last month. In 16 cases, pieces of evidence were returned to the wrong rape kit, hindering 19 investigations. In 2010after more than a year of renewed investigation and stiff opposition from embarrassed state authorities, including Governor Rick Perrythe Texas Forensic Science Commission led by Dr. Craig Beyler concluded that there was not ample evidence for arson and Vasquezs testimony was hardly consistent with a scientific mind-set and was more characteristic of mystics or psychics.. You can get free samples of her books here or watch free tarot videos on her YouTube channel here. The prosecution had expert witnesses who testified that the evidence was often mishandled. 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