DNA NEWS

Forensic Contretemps

Brian Kelly was the first person in Scotland to be successfully prosecuted solely on the basis of DNA evidence. The facts were uncomplicated: A woman was raped at night in her Ayrshire home in 1987 by a burglar. In July of that year Kelly, a police officer who lived nearby, voluntarily gave a DNA sample to investigators believing this would eliminate him from the inquiry. Thereafter, the lab reported a match and Kelly was charged with the rape. The victim was unable to identify him as the rapist even though she knew him as a police officer. Kelly nonetheless was convicted in 1989 and sentenced to prison for six years. His parole was delayed until 1993 because he refused to admit his guilt. The Scotsman (Nov 23, 2003) recently disclosed that the conviction may be quashed early this year because two separate studies have concluded that cross contamination of the evidence may have produced a false-positive result. The Texas Department of Public Safety operates 13 regional crime labs, all of which are nationally accredited. A review by the Houston Chronicle (Oct 26, 2003) of recent audits of seven of these labs found that one failed to adequately decontaminate lab space. Another had improper evidence storage and lacked a back-up power supply. "When power fluctuates during amplification of extracted DNA, the evidence could be destroyed." An inspector noted that dozens of evidence cuttings at one DNA lab were not properly stored. A DPS scientist explained away the deficiencies by saying that a 100 percent compliance rate is an unreasonable expectation. "You can go into any lab, any day of the week and find some things that need correction." Last year, according to the Bucks County Courier Times (Oct 14, 2003), errors were uncovered in four cases worked by one scientist at the Pennsylvania State Police Crime Lab. In one case she failed to detect a semen stain on an article of clothing assigned to her for analysis. Last June she was given six months of remedial training, at the end of which she resigned. PSP officials sent letters to prosecutors in 27 counties whose cases were handled by her, notifying them of the potential for error. Some 615 cases were scheduled for retesting. In the neighboring state of New Jersey, five police officers were recently convicted in federal court for a civil rights violation involving the death of a prisoner in their custody. Introduced at trial was a bloodstained concrete chip that was pried from a sidewalk two weeks after the victim was arrested. Witnesses said the five officers beat the victim at that location. A FBI Crime Lab scientist testified that she matched his blood to the sidewalk stain. The defendants were awaiting sentences when FBI officials disclosed that the scientist had just admitted skipping a quality control step in DNA tests in their case and 102 others. She did not perform the routine check for contamination because she wanted her casework "to run smoothly." The prosecutor argued that there was no proof the test results were inaccurate. However, as reported by the Newark Star-Ledger (Nov 25, 2003), the sample is so small it might disintegrate if tested again. Defense counsel said they want a retrial, not a retest. A decision is expected soon. The Indiana State Police runs four of the five accredited crime labs in the state. The Indianapolis-Marion County Forensic Services Agency (FSA) is the other. The technical manager of FSA's DNA section, according to The Indianapolis Star (Dec 25, 2003), is accusing his supervisors of covering up serious abuses in DNA testing procedures. The lab director denied the manager's accusations, speculating that "the ambitious scientist might be angry that his supervisory duties were recently stripped away." This latest revelation brings new attention to problems at the lab. The county is conducting retests on all DNA analysis done by a staff scientist who resigned amid accusations that he cut corners on tests and tampered with equipment. Defense lawyers fear a pattern of apparent problems casts doubt on everything the lab does. "This is about undermining the credibility of and confidence in evidence that is sending people to prison." Following his resignation, The Oklahoman (July 22, 2003) revealed that this scientist was hired by the Oklahoma City Police Department Crime Lab as the manager of its DNA unit, where a scandal involving another scientist -- Joyce Gilchrist -- accused of shoddy forensic work prompted a massive review of her cases. Gilchrist was fired two years ago because of "laboratory mismanagement and flawed casework analysis." A public defender sees the hiring of the Indiana scientist who resigned under a cloud as proof that Oklahoma City is not trying to correct the problems in its laboratory.

Post-Conviction DNA Exonerations Often Create Unsolved Cases

Two men were convicted in Oklahoma for a 1982 rape-murder in which the State relied upon microscopic hair comparisons. One was five days away from being executed when a federal judge ordered DNA testing. That testing not only demonstrated that the two defendants were innocent but it resulted in a cold hit that lead to the indictment of a man who, according to The Oklahoman (Dec. 3, 2003), was recently convicted and sentenced to death for the very same 1982 rape-murder. This case was unusual because most post-conviction DNA exonerations often result in the case remaining unsolved. Until recently, there has been very little public scrutiny of whether the original crime was ever reinvestigated. The Chicago Tribune (Oct 26, 2003) examined every case in the US where DNA testing exonerated a convicted offender, focusing on 115 murders and rapes where the release left a crime unsolved. In about 15% of those cases, DNA was quickly used to link a known suspect to the crime. But in just under half of the remaining cases, authorities have not followed up by submitting the genetic profile of the suspected perpetrator to the DNA Database. This inaction often is the product of prosecutors being convinced they convicted the right person, no matter what the DNA test results might show. Declining to follow up on post-conviction exonerations often leaves the real rapist or murderer free to strike again, said the president of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. "Whatever the reason, the lack of pursuit of the real perpetrator is an injustice, not only to the public and the victim, but to the wrongfully convicted." In nine of the 10 exonerations in Louisiana since 1998, no subsequent arrests have been made after the original convictions were set aside. Twenty-two years ago, Calvin Willis was convicted of rape and sentenced to life imprisonment. Two decades later, the conviction was set aside and he was released when DNA evidence proved that the wrong man was convicted. As far as the DA in Caddo Parish is concerned, according to The Advocate (Nov 23. 2003), the case is over. "There ain't no place to go with this case. It's impossible to try a second person when one person has been convicted." A person released from prison because of post-conviction DNA testing may not be innocent, explained an officer of the Louisiana District Attorney's Association. On the other hand, the president of the National District Attorneys Association said: "There's absolutely no excuse for not putting the sample into a Database to find out who did it." The Massachusetts CODIS administrator acknowledged that some investigators do not submit DNA profiles from exoneration cases to the Database because they have difficulty believing the wrong person was convicted. The failure to seek a DNA match is all the more disappointing given that when such a profile is run through the Database, the real criminal was identified more than 40 percent of the time.

Prosecutorial Resistance to Post-Conviction DNA Testing

When post-conviction DNA testing began to develop a decade ago, too many prosecutors vigorously opposed defense applications for such testing. The inexplicable opposition continues today. In an article in The Washington Post (Sept 21, 2003), former FBI Director William S. Sessions writes that "with 137 post-conviction DNA exonerations now on the books in the United States, I am increasingly concerned about recent news stories that suggest a growing resistance on the part of prosecutors across the country to allow post-conviction DNA testing, even in cases where there is strong evidence of innocence." Judge Sessions argues that prosecutors have a professional duty and moral responsibility to seek the truth. "Just as pretrial DNA testing has illuminated the unexpected frequency with which police and prosecutors have targeted the wrong person, post-conviction testing in cases that were tried 15 or more years ago can exonerate those wrongly convicted, and can possibly identify the true perpetrator." Sessions does not understand why prosecutors oppose a defendant's access to DNA evidence for testing in cases where the results could make a difference. "Prosecutors have nothing to lose -- unless they put their pride before their professionalism -- in allowing post-conviction DNA requests to go forward. If the DNA test proves the defendant is guilty, then all doubts will be resolved. If it exonerates the defendant, then there is an opportunity to correct a tragic mistake and begin the search for the real criminal."

Houston, We Have A Problem

The biggest forensic science scandal in US history, involving the largest unaccredited public lab in the nation, was brought to light last year. The Houston Chronicle (Sept 7, 2003) disclosed that none of the scientists who worked in the DNA section of the Houston Police Department Crime Lab was qualified by education and training to do the job. Only one lab scientist had completed all the college courses mandated by quality assurance standards. Nor were the scientists regularly tested to measure their proficiency. HPD ended DNA testing after the exposure of numerous other deficiencies at the lab such as shoddy science and substandard facilities that promoted evidence contamination. A Texas grand jury concluded its investigation of these conditions last October by strongly criticizing the lab's management. "The problems that were allowed to go on at the Crime Lab were both an embarrassment and a disgrace." This appalling situation of ineptitude and incompetence prompted the DA to review more than 1300 cases involving DNA evidence handled by the HPD lab. After the review last March, he ordered the retesting of such evidence in 378 cases. The Houston Chronicle (Jan 9, 2004) revealed that as of the beginning of this year private labs have retested HPD's work on evidence from 134 cases. About 23% of the new test results have discrepancies with HPD's original findings. The first reanalysis resulted in the exoneration and release of a teenager who was serving 25 years in prison for rape. The retesting program has cost the city more than $1.1 million.

New Crime Lab Director

The head of the DNA section retired last June after the Police Chief recommended that he be fired. The lab director had retired earlier. A DNA section supervisor was suspended for five days for mismanagement and had failed proficiency tests, but nonetheless later won a promotion to quality control. Another scientist was suspended last June for 14 days after several errors were found in four separate cases, including a capital murder case. Several staff scientists described an enormous workload and little support from the command staff. Professor William C. Thompson, who helped expose some of the errors at the HPD lab, was unsympathetic to staff excuses: "These people were so far behind professional developments in their field it's absurd." In December, an HPD scientist for the past 21 years was fired because of incompetence. The Houston Chronicle (Dec 31, 2003) reported that she is the only scientist who has been fired since DNA testing was suspended. "It is about time," said Thompson. "Slap-on-the-wrist suspensions are not going to solve problems at that lab." Last October, when the new the director of the HPD Crime Lab was named, the Houston Chronicle (Oct 9, 2003) quoted one scientist as saying: "It's a very tough job with all that has happened in that lab, and those are not just recent problems. They have been ongoing for years." He added that the hiring of a new director must be accompanied by financial support from the city because it could cost as much as 40 percent more to meet industry standards in the lab. The HPD Chief, according to the Austin American Statesman (Sept 1, 2003), was unsure if the city would make the necessary financial commitment. In the midst of the HPD scandal, a law was enacted requiring all labs to become accredited by 2005. Texas has a total of about 40 labs throughout the state, but only 19 are accredited by ASCLD/LAB. Some forensic scientists view the new law as a sound safety net, but others say accreditation is of limited value. These critics, according to the Houston Chronicle (Oct 26, 2003), argue that accreditation is overestimated because the only two organizations offering accreditation are professional associations, not powerful regulating entities. Professor Thompson bluntly noted: "It's an old boys' network with people from the labs basically accrediting each other. The idea that this is some kind of rigorous process is simply a sham."

Are Regional Crime Labs the Answer?

Last October, the HPD abruptly closed the toxicology section of its troubled lab after the only scientist assigned to that section failed a proficiency test. One PT error involved a false positive, which could signal problems with lab controls. The DA, according to the Houston Chronicle (Oct 30, 2003), was "extremely disappointed" to learn of problems in another section of the lab that will necessitate a review of more cases. He predicted that the latest crisis would make the lab's problems with DNA testing "look like a cakewalk." Shortly thereafter, the Houston Chronicle (Nov 13, 2003) reported that evidence in 29 cases slated for DNA retesting is missing. "After all this has happened, it is just kind-of 'what's next?''' the exasperated DA said. The missing evidence raises concerns that questions about the quality of work in those cases may never be answered. A few days later, the DA announced that evidence in eight of the cases was actually destroyed. Some defense lawyers say this is yet another sign of the extent of problems at the lab. What are prospective jurors saying about the well-publicized mess at the Crime Lab in the nation's fourth-largest city? In mid-November, during voir dire, a prospective juror described the operations at the HPD lab as scandalous. And, according to the Houston Chronicle (Nov 16, 2003), as the 64 other panelists listened, the angry trial judge said that he agreed with her: "That's exactly what it is, scandalous." Prosecutors agree that potential jurors are expressing doubts about expert testimony they have accepted uncritically in the past. At year's end, one state representative was thinking of legislation that would require the city and the county to establish a regional crime lab. Another legislator would like to see statewide regional labs in light of problems at forensic labs in Austin, Fort Worth and San Antonio in the past few years (Houston Chronicle, Dec 26, 2003).

Closing Cold Cases

DNA testing has the demonstrated capability of solving decades-old homicides. For example, a woman was found shot to death in a field near Cameron Park, California in 1971. Her murder went unsolved and almost forgotten for 32 years, until a Cold Case Squad detective sent some clothing stored in an evidence bag to the lab for DNA analysis. A profile was extracted from this evidence and run through the State DNA Database. There was a cold hit. The profile matched Phillip Arthur Thompson, who is serving a long sentence at the California State Prison for a series of rapes in the early 1980s. The Register-Guard (Nov 5, 2003) quotes officials as saying it's the oldest case solved by DNA in the state's history. Another cold case involved a woman who was raped and beaten to death 45 years ago while she slept in her home in Milwaukee. In 1959 John Watson was indicted for the rape-murder but the charge was dismissed a year later because of legal insufficiency. The case remained inactive until a year ago when a detective found the crime scene evidence still wrapped and sealed in the department's storage room. The material was sent to the lab and a DNA profile was extracted. A court order was issued directing the 82-year-old Watson to provide a DNA sample. A forensic scientist found that the profiles matched. Watson -- who has spent much of his life in prison -- was recently taken into custody. The Pioneer Press (Dec 11, 2003) reported that the case is the oldest in Wisconsin solved by DNA evidence and one of the oldest in the nation. For 35 years, crime scene evidence from the rape-murder of a San Francisco 14-year-old girl was stored in a refrigerator at the ME's office. It sat there for decades before it was tested for DNA last October as part of an effort to clear old cases. When the extracted DNA profile was run through the Database, there was a cold hit -- a match to William Speer, a 61-year-old man with multiple rape convictions, most recently in Tucson in 1991. The Mercury News (Dec 23, 2003) quotes the chief of the FBI's CODIS unit as saying that this 1968 rape-murder may be the oldest ever solved using the FBI's nationwide Database. Another old case comes out of Baltimore. A woman was raped and murdered in that city in 1988. No leads were developed and the case became inactive. In 2002, Cold Case Squad detectives submitted crime scene evidence to the lab. Later, scientists extracted a profile and ran it through the State DNA Database. According to The Baltimore Sun (Dec 24, 2003) there was a cold hit -- a match to Corey D. Jones, whose profile was in the Database because of a 1990 conviction for rape-robbery. In late December, he was arrested and charged with the 15-year-old murder.

Post-Arrest DNA Exonerations

In about 25% of the cases submitted to the FBI lab during the past decade, the crime scene DNA does not match the DNA of the suspect. In other words, hundreds of arrested persons are exonerated before trial each year by DNA test results. Here are a few recent cases: A man was arrested in Indiana last year for raping a young girl. Five months later he was released from jail when, according to WLKY (Sept 16, 2003), DNA testing of evidence ruled him out as a suspect. After spending a month in jail last summer, a veteran New Orleans police officer was released from custody after DNA tests indicated he was not the person who raped a tourist in 2000 (The Times-Picayune, Sept 24, 2003). A Brooklyn man accused of raping a teenage girl was cleared last October because of DNA testing. When the indictment was dismissed on the DA's motion, the Staten Island Advance (Oct 2, 2003) quoted the defense attorney as saying: "If not for DNA evidence, this man quite possibly could have been convicted. I'm glad the lie was discovered now and not after my client spent 20 years in prison." In 1985, a 70-year-old woman was raped and murdered in her home in Louisiana. Her grandson was charged with the crime in 1988 but the jury was unable to reach a verdict and the case was not retried. Many people in the community believed that the grandson was the perpetrator. Recently, however, crime scene evidence was submitted to the lab for DNA analysis and the Gainesville Sun (Oct 14, 2003) reported that the lab scored a cold hit -- a match to a man who is now in prison on an unrelated charge. The grandson's defense attorney offered this comment: "It looks like DNA has worked. It's a good thing they didn't have him in jail all this time." A woman was raped last June in Floriana, Malta. Based solely on the victim's eyewitness identification, the police arrested a Libyan man who was remanded to the local correctional facility. He voluntarily provided a DNA sample to the National Forensic Lab. A month later, after the lab report proved that he was innocent, the charge was dismissed and he was released from jail. The investigation continued. Following a DNA match in December, the Malta Star (Dec 4, 2003) reported that a seventeen-year-old youth -- who has a strong resemblance to the Libyan man -- was arrested and arraigned for the crime. A case in Tennessee demonstrating prosecutorial and police fallibility involved a man who had "a lot of alibi evidence" and who promptly volunteered a DNA sample when arrested for rape. After being confined in jail last year for three months, he was released in December when a "misfiled" DNA report that cleared him of the crime was found. In fact, according to the Chattanoogan (Dec 17, 2003), the State Crime Lab in Nashville sent the report to the DA and the Chattanooga Police Department one week after the man's arrest. "The report apparently was misfiled," the DA explained.

Post-Conviction DNA Testing That Confirms Guilt

When post-conviction DNA testing is conducted, the test results in about half the cases further implicate the defendant. For example, William Hayes was convicted in New York in 1989 for murder and sentenced to prison for life. When the victim's body was found strangled, crime scene investigators obtained material from under her fingernails and kept it as evidence. The Innocence Project filed a motion on his behalf last year for post-conviction DNA testing of the still extant material in an effort to prove his claim of innocence. The motion was granted and the evidence was tested. According to WSTM TV News (Sept 16, 2003), the testing of the material matched up with Hayes's DNA profile and the Innocence Project withdrew from his case. Steven Holcomb was convicted in Chicago of raping a 13-year-old girl in 1985. In 2002 Holcomb, represented by the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern Law School, filed a motion for post-conviction DNA testing. The motion was granted and the testing was conducted last September. The Chicago Tribune (Oct 30, 2003) reported that the test resulted in a positive match to Holcomb. The DA said that a majority of the post-conviction DNA testing cases that he has handled have resulted in positive matches. "It's not unusual. You just don't hear about cases where the DNA confirms that the right person was convicted." An attorney at the Center said that the Holcomb case "is no longer active."

Send mail to (To be announced) with questions or comments about this web site. Copyright © 2004 Innocence Project Philippines Last modified: 06/01/04

Send mail to (To be announced) with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2004 Innocence Project Philippines
Last modified: 06/01/04