A new publish report indicates the FBI sent 27 people to prison on
death row, on corrupted evidence that was compromised in the Federal
Bureau of Investigation’s lab. It was discovered FBI employees lied
on the witness stand about lab evidence to close out criminal cases,
sending innocent people to prison, sitting on death row awaiting
execution. The FBI is now reviewing these old cases.
The Judiciary Report has stated it before and will state it again,
there are people locked away behind bars proclaiming their innocence
and some are actually telling the truth. Sometimes innocent people
lose their freedom and waste away in prison, while actually criminals
walk free (you know, like George Zimmerman).
STORY SOURCE
U.S. reviewing 27 death penalty convictions for FBI forensic testimony
errors
By Spencer S. Hsu, Wednesday, July 17, 7:07 PM - An unprecedented
federal review of old criminal cases has uncovered as many as 27 death
penalty convictions in which FBI forensic experts may have mistakenly
linked defendants to crimes with exaggerated scientific testimony,
U.S. officials said. The review led to an 11th-hour stay of execution
in Mississippi in May.
It is not known how many of the cases involve errors, how many led
to wrongful convictions or how many mistakes may now jeopardize valid
convictions. Those questions will be explored as the review continues.
The discovery of the more than two dozen capital cases promises that
the examination could become a factor in the debate over the death
penalty. Some opponents have long held that the execution of a person
confirmed to be innocent would crystallize doubts about capital
punishment. But if DNA or other testing confirms all convictions, it
would strengthen proponents’ arguments that the system works.
FBI officials discussed the review’s scope as they prepare to
disclose its first results later this summer. The death row cases are
among the first 120 convictions identified as potentially problematic
among more than 21,700 FBI Laboratory files being examined. The review
was announced last July by the FBI and the Justice Department, in
consultation with the Innocence Project and the National Association
of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL).
The unusual collaboration came after The Washington Post reported
last year that authorities had known for years that flawed forensic
work by FBI hair examiners may have led to convictions of potentially
innocent people, but officials had not aggressively investigated
problems or notified defendants. Since at least the 1970s, written FBI Laboratory reports typically
stated that a hair association could not be used as positive
identification. However, on the witness stand, several agents for
years went beyond the science and testified that their hair analysis
was a near-certain match...
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