On the the basis of falsified evidence, her presumed killer, Christopher Edwards, may now have legal grounds to overturn an otherwise convincing murder conviction. Every city has ignominious chapters in its history that it would rather forget. According to an examiners study, at least 90 percent of trial transcripts in their Microscopic Hair Comparison Analysis Review contained erroneous statements. Among those convicted on fraudulent evidence are 32 defendants sentenced to death, 14 of whom have either died in prison or already been executed. In 1989, the Harris family of Dryden, New York became the victims of a grisly murder. 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. One of the few witnesses brave enough to testify against Mrs. Hall was Jane Gibson, a swine herder who became known as the Pig Lady in the press. "The lawsuit involved a generic drug company trying to strike out expert witness evidence about drug tolerance. Understanding Forensic Science The whole situation was a bloody mess and a complete forensic fail. Eric Garner. Helmsman of the drug lab for nearly two decades, and himself suspected of professional improprieties, Callery had overseen a spate of irresponsible hiring decisions. In 2008, Brooklyn cops were caught siphoning off drugs confiscated in arrests which, for many observers, would constitute a textbook case of crooked policing. Microscopic comparisons were very convincing to juries, especially when linked with testimony from forensic experts claiming that the hair matched a suspect. A graduate of West Virginia State College, Zain had only managed to pass some of his chemistry courses by the skin of his teeth, while utterly failing in others. Changing that initial perception was going to be tough. The investigation concluded that Deras "mishandled sensitive evidence" pertaining to 21-year-old Lauren McCluskey's case while he was employed with the university's police department. The prosecution had expert witnesses who testified that the evidence was often mishandled. She found the bathroom she shared with her roommate, Meredith Kercher, covered in blood. Simpson's Case. Though movies and media headlines have taught society to view police officers with an ample (but arguably healthy dose) of suspicion, pop cultures treatment of the FBI has been comparatively favorable. The mistakes of a single unidentified lab technician forced the New York medical examiners office to review 843 rape cases for DNA evidence which could have been improperly processed. Simpson murder case. 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. The potential breakthrough for Knox and Sollecito came just two days after their case suffered a hefty setback. All we do know is that forensic fails can be deadly. district attorney drops or reduces charges in 67 cases over mishandled evidence Dist. 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. As the defense attorney for an alleged narcotics kingpin opined, It stands to reason that the strict chain of custody claimed by the government in most cases is a sham.. But, for residents of Douglas County, Nebraska, those three letters could just as easily stand for Criminal Subterfuge in Investigations thanks to disgraced David Kofoed, whose tenure as chief of the local CSI division was marred by the willful manipulation of DNA evidence in a series of murder cases. There was about 1.5 mL of O.J. The victims were from one jurisdiction, but their bodies were found in another, leading to disagreements about which department should collect the forensic evidence. She had been shot in the head . Witnesses may be unreliable, and memories might be foggy, but scientific evidence doesnt lie. 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. Mishandled Evidence Should Have Prompted a Mistrial. Webb would later recant his testimony, telling a reporter he was mistaken as a result of being on multiple medications for bipolar disorder. Fingerprint evidence that tied her to gasoline cans used in the arson had been planted by New York State Troopers. A state forensic analyst claimed that Camms t-shirt had been stained with the wifes blood in patterns suggesting he was the perpetrator. When the prosecution presented hairs found in the back of Williamss car, Podlecki claimed they were consistent with the victims. On May 3, 2007, 3-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared from her family's vacation apartment in Praia da Luz, in southwest Portugal. For nine years, Annie Dookhan worked as a crime lab chemist in Massachusetts, performing drug tests for criminal cases. In the years that followed, more than 1,400 cases were reviewed, hundreds of convictions overturned, and $5 million in compensation was awarded to victims of the police. The new figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal the total number of people whose trials have ended or the charges against them dropped due to a failure to disclose evidence . 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. 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. The role of the jury is to listen to both sides of the case (prosecutor and defense). As a result, the cases against 11 suspected rapists have gone cold, perhaps never to be solved. With examples of misconduct extending into the 1980s, the Houston crime lab precipitated a lengthy reign of errors that has led to two mandatory shutdowns. Boneys history included attacking women. Problems with her collection and analysis techniques prompted further scrutiny, revealing that she had been reporting false negatives instead of false positives during chemical tests for semen detection on clothing. Rather, she had been faking test results at a rate of thousands per year. Other items of evidence were also never logged or entered into the chain of custody, which gave the impression that sloppy forensic collection had been carried out at the scene. Dr. Ralph Erdmann had a reputation as an excellent witness to call to the standif you were a prosecutor. The BTK Killer You can't talk about criminal cases and digital forensics without mentioning the infamous BTK killer case. A sixth officer, situated in Troop F, had long known the other five perpetrators and undoubtedly shared in their criminal nonchalance, even planting evidence in one instance where a conviction would have been secured without it. Erdmann pleaded no contest to seven felonies regarding false evidence and botched autopsies. "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. Furthermore, Simpsons Bronco, which had been impounded at an LAPD facility, was entered at least twice without authorization. The defense team stated that EDTA was found in the samples of blood that were collected at the crime scene. A series of arson attacks against forensic laboratories in Brussels has alerted the world to a huge security fail going on in Belgium. In the wake of the legal, ethical, and financial chaos wrought by Annie Dookhan, her punishment may strike many as light. Marco Raymond Butterfield, 22, was arrested following the robbery and shooting of a 27-year-old man outside a barber shop in northwest Oklahoma City. "The international procedures for the inspection [of the scene of a crime] were not followed," Stefano Conti and Carla Vecciotti, both professors, said in their report. Justice Kennedy, with whom The Chief Justice, Jus tice White and Justice Blackmun join, dissenting. Somehow, these flashing signs of inability didnt prevent him from landing jobs as a police chemist for the state of West Virginia and chief of physical evidence in Bexar County, Texas. Subsequent exploration of Kofoeds other cases revealed a pattern of dubious handiwork. The son of a Sunday school teacher, a long-time law enforcement officer, and an honors graduate of the FBI Academy, Lowry was not exactly the spitting image of drug addiction. The two were . 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. 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. An additional 500 convictions are slated to be challenged with thousands more in the works. William A. Updated on May 25, 2022 When a person goes to trial for a crime, he or she is represented by a criminal defense attorney. A criminalist collects, documents, preserves, and examines the physical evidence at a crime scene, which could be something as huge as a bus, or as tiny as a pollen grain; criminologists, on the other hand, study why crimes occur, how they can be prevented, and the effects they have on a society. Firefox was used to access an address with "chloroform.htm.". For people seeking careers that are simultaneously challenging, meaningful, and exciting, it is tough to beat becoming a crime scene technician. 10 Famous Cases Cracked by Forensics. Another witness revealed that Mrs. Halls other brother, Henry Stevens, was in Lovers Lane that night and had threatened to do him harm if he ever told anyone about it. On October 24, 2015, after spending 13 years in prison for the deaths of his wife and two children, David Camm was acquitted and released. Nor had the police "respected international standards for the collection and bagging of exhibits", they maintained. 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]. She could pass through borders with no apparent problems and was linked crimes in at least three countries. recent interviews with three prominent professors, the police didnt wear caps or change gloves as they collected items, planted evidence on the part of the detectives, a fire ravaged Cameron Todd Willinghams house killing his two-year-old daughter and one-year-old twins, National Criminal Justice Month 2021: An Advocacy Toolkit, Homicide Investigations: How to Determine Time of Death, How To Become a Crime Scene Technician - Education & Certification Guide. 10 Examples of Police Intimidation Cases: Wrapping Up. Miner was a clever and successful "Gentleman Bandit" who continually eluded police both in the United States and Canada. And a big part of the problem could be pinned on the man running the show: Chief Medical Examiner Richard Callery. Robinson was on-site at a Tucson facility in April 2018 when the FBI took the servers into custody pursuant to a federal warrant. He testified about the condition of a dead mans spleen, not knowing that the spleen had been surgically removed years earlier. Both had been shot. Two people were convicted and imprisoned for that brutal affair: Michael Kinge and his mother, Shirley. This faith in Zains abilities sent untold numbers of innocent men behind bars, primarily for rape and murder charges. He spent 26 years in jail before a group called The . Drunk Police Officer. Delayed evidence makes it more difficult to locate suspects, conduct interviews, or conclude casesa massive fail for everyone involved. " We are referring to the mother of all courtroom media spectacles: The People of the State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson. Conspiracy theorists helped spread the rumor that a racist cop had killed both Nicole and Ron to frame O.J. In addition, the US Department of Justice revealed that more than 400,000 stored rape kits have not yet been tested across the country because of insufficient funding. In 16 cases, pieces of evidence were returned to the wrong rape kit, hindering 19 investigations. Machine Gun Kelly George "Machine Gun" Kelly was a notorious criminal during the Prohibition era, taking part in bootlegging, kidnapping and armed robbery. During the June 2011 appeals trial, experts uncovered the numerous flaws in the forensic evidence levied against Knox and Sollecito. Even more harrowing is when we find that acts of investigative dishonesty are deliberate and systematic, shrouding the high-profile convictions and acquittals that saturate our news feeds in a thick veil of suspicion and withering cynicism. The National Institute of Criminology, considered the most important forensic testing center in Belgium, was also hit by arsonists in 2016. Oscar Pistorius' defence team accused a South African police photographer of mishandling the crime scene during day 12 of his trial in Pretoria. Then, 2014 brought yet another wave of criticism when another forensic analyst resigned after revelations that he eschewed lab protocols and falsified official records, casting an all-too-familiar doubt on roughly 180 criminal cases. In 2006, he faked DNA evidence that was used to solve the murder of Jessica OGrady. To buttress law enforcement accusations, Kofoed planted traces of blood which tied the suspects to the murder scene, ultimately securing a guilty verdict in court. The jury disregarded Gibsons testimony, acquitting Mrs. Hall and her brothers of all charges. 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. The defense noted several items that had gone missing, including a vial of blood from OJ Simpson. 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. The real killer was later identified. Few cases in history have been more focused on forensic evidence than the O.J. Ironically, the work of a man determined to secure criminal convictions, regardless of innocence, may allow an apparently guilty man to go free. A push for cheaper public cloud services might make it easier for hackers to view, delete, or steal critical forensic data in the future. Theyd been stabbed multiple times. With a team of criminals and incompetents running the drug lab, unconscionable misconduct ensued. During a Reddit " Ask Me Anything . 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. One of the most frustrating and heartbreaking docu-series in recent memory was The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez. Of course, the evidence is available for experts with trained eyes and the proper equipment, but the science isnt without fault. Still convinced of Knox and Sollecitos guilt, the prosecution spun a narrative claiming the couple had partnered with Guede in Kerchers murder. Unfortunately, DNA testing proved him innocent 11 months after he died. Although serial killer Ted Bundy was responsible for an estimated 30-plus murders, there was little physical evidence to connect him to the crimes when he was arrested in 1975. A Canadian Pacific . H.E. In another instance, a former employee had managed to hold onto an evidence locker pass key six years after leaving the job. Once the thieves discovered that the information was useless, they had no idea what to do with the server or how to abandon it without arousing suspicion. Dubbed "The Phantom of Heilbronn," the anonymous woman's genetic material was detected at the scene of more than forty crimes over a two-decade period. The large server contained vital evidence for multiple criminal cases. While the abundance of evidence certainly provided more than enough to do so, the doubts cast by the sloppy police work were enough of a window. Defense attorneys were quick to argue that lax procedures by the forensics team could have led to the degradation or cross-contamination of blood evidence. This was probably the only case on record where criminals trying to steal old forensics were caught using new forensics.[4]. You can get free samples of her books here or watch free tarot videos on her YouTube channel here. 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. Coupled with confessions from the murderers and DNA evidence, Williams, Adams, Rainge, and Jimerson were finally exonerated after 17 years in prison. The jurors agreed that the DNA testimony was difficult to appreciate since expert witnesses were not able to put their evidence in terms that the jury could understand. IDAHO, PETITIONER v. LAURA LEE WRIGHT. And a certain heightened credibility comes with that. Lack of verifiable evidence; Failure to look for witnesses; Improper procedural process; If the investigation was mishandled, the case may never go to court or if it does, the judge may dismiss it from further court procedures. 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. Some believe that the positive EDTA results may have been due to contamination of the equipment used to run the tests. He blamed the situation on the deplorable funding for storage, coupled with low pay for overworked evidence clerks. Unfortunately, Dookhan wasnt some laboratory wunderkind with a passion for drug offenses. It was spring of 1989 and the then-50-year-old Chinese . Belgian prosecutors are angered over the lack of adequate security measures for scientific labs in their nation, especially since there was sufficient warning that the sites were vulnerable to attack. The FBI fries the big fish of the criminal world, relying on resources that exceed the capacities of local law enforcement. 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. 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. It was Romanelli who uncovered Kerchers two cell phones in a garden nearby and she requested that the police break into Kerchers room. Police misconduct is any action done by a police officer that is illegal, inappropriate, or against police policies. Manuel Vasquez, a state deputy fire marshall, took the stand and testified to seeing puddle configurations (i.e., areas of rapid burning) suggesting the use of accelerants in the fire and indicating arson. Additionally, some jurors have since admitted that the verdict was retribution for the acquittal of white police officers in the beating of Rodney King in 1992. 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. People are being sentenced to jail for life or are being put on death row. John Vasquez, who worked in evidence management for 25 years, admitted that during his career, hed seen unlabeled evidence tossed into a closet, a hand grenade stored in a glass jar, boxes of corrosive chemicals leaking onto other boxes of evidence, and forensic samples stored in a clerks office next to employees food and drinks. This article explores five fascinating cases of fraud in forensics to underscore the importance of using scientifically valid and reliable methods in this growing career field. In at least 26 cases, the technician missed biological evidence that could have been useful for a rape trial. Ted Bundy. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 2,030 people have been proven innocent through DNA testing. However, the prosecutors were able to get their hands on 88,000 e-mails and other messages on Michelle's . A civil court awarded the plaintiffs a total of $6.5 milliona gesture which is more symbolic than practical in light of Kofoeds inability to pay the fine. Simpsons blood assumed missing from a vial of evidence. Cameron Todd Willingham Securing the Evidence However, additional evidence later led authorities to the actual perpetrators of the double homicide and exposed Kofoeds deception. A lawmans brother was later caught trying to sell some of the documents to reporters. Fred Zains academic record does not reveal the makings of a person fit to wield a beaker, let alone work in a forensics lab. Coupled with confessions from the murderers and DNA evidence, Williams, Adams, Rainge, and Jimerson were finally exonerated after 17 years in prison. Michelle Theer (2000): On December 17 th, 2000, John Diamond shot and killed Air Force Captain Marty Theer. An internal investigation conducted two years ago by the Orange County Sheriff's Department, the findings of which were not made public at the time, uncovered systematic mishandling of evidence . Camm was charged once againthis time as a co-conspirator with Boney. At the heart of the scandal were five forensic investigators from Troop C. According to investigators, these individuals benefited from a culture of lax, and even tacitly complicit, oversight that nurtured a felonious hubris. 1 The Central Park 5. On July 22, 1933, he and another man kidnapped wealthy Oklahoma City oilman Charles Urschel. The mess-ups: A review of 88 of his cases found that 65 had incomplete documentation, 32 had administrative errors, and in eight cases, evidence had been misplaced. 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. Still, Robert Lowery, vice president of the Missing Children's Division at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, points to other high-profile missing children's cases as support for the belief that cases like . The Knox case. A Question of Planted Evidence Apparently, old habits die hard. Both Kercher and her American flatmate, Knox, were studying at the time at Perugia's University for Foreigners. In hindsight, one might characterize the scandal as a logical offshoot of the very system which condemns its criminality. This case involves defendant James Franqueira, a 32-year-old Vermont resident. 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 the meantime, the criminal justice system will be left to clean up the countless messes caused by a single person with too much incentive to lie and too little oversight. Lawyers, experts say forensic evidence was too experimental for courtroom. DNA wasn't always widely accepted as valid evidence in court cases the way it is today. A suspects laptop and cell phone can show evidence of a crime, motivation, or premeditation. On September 10, 1904, Miner and two accomplices, later identified as William "Shorty" Dunn and Louis Colquhoun, were involved in the first train robbery in Canada. The government has since identified nearly 3,000 cases for review, based on questionable hair analysis testimony.[8]. Sadly, Willingham was found guilty and executed February 17, 2004. He estimated internal organ weight measurements for subjects that had never been cut open. 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. 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. The consequences of that complacency have been devastating for Massachusetts. The case took a turn as there were no eyewitnesses and no physical evidence. But a small number of cases around the country have . But, like so many corruption cases, Lowrys greatest crime may not be one which exists on any US law book. One of the most renowned cases involving problems with the chain of evidence was the O.J. One of the drug thieves, James Woodson, was hired despite allegations that he had stolen evidence from the New Castle Police Department in Delaware. Between 2010 and 2012, there were over 50 thefts from the state Medical Examiners Office. Because the police department did not have proper collection documents regarding Simpsons blood, it was argued that the police planted Simpsons missing blood on critical evidence and in critical areas of the murder scene. Shocking reports have been filed against crime labs, police departments, and sheriffs offices concerning improper, underfunded, and outrageously inadequate forensic storage facilities. He listed one cause of death as pneumonia, even though a suspect later confessed that hed shot the victim in the head. Her case has never been solved. Sheriff's Department headquarters and O.C. Several inquiries and protests have been made by experts within the legal system regarding the deplorable way that forensic evidence is being stored across the country. For aspiring forensics professionals, these documented abuses of the science are presented as cautionary tales. A former Boulder, Colorado, police chief who investigated the death of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBent Ramsey has acknowledged the murder case was mishandled. Detective Fuhrman was discredited by the prosecution when he was alleged to be a racist and accused of planting evidence. On September 28, 2000, David Camma retired Indiana State Trooperreturned home to find his wife and two children dead of gunshot wounds. That first edition attempted to be a comprehensive collection of case law and materials that provided guidance on how electronic information Simpson was accused of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown-Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman on June 12, 1994, between approximately 9:40 p.m. and 10:55 p.m., in the front courtyard of her condominium on Bundy Drive, Brentwood. The judge made some good points and some that made it obvious that they aren't tech savvy but still a good read. The person who drew the blood could only guess he had taken 8 mL; only 6 mL could be accounted for by the LAPD. 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. 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. With the rate of laboratory malfeasance far outpacing the capacity of authorities to address it, we may never fully ascertain just how many lives were ruined or potentially lost thanks to the Houston Police Departments forensic infractions. No one knows how many innocent men and women have been put to death because of faulty forensics or inaccurate experts. When detectives arrived at OJ Simpsons home to inform him of the death of his ex-wife, they noticed blood on Simpsons white Ford Bronco. Evidence to be used against European terrorists, including those suspected in the most recent attacks against Paris, has been burned, lost, or compromised during the fires. But, when an agent like Matthew Lowry is caught getting high on heroin that he stole from an FBI crime lab, that credence suffers greatly. It will depend on the judge and whether the mishandled components are enough to throw out the case. Key pieces of evidence left by the killer were passed around by reporters. Simpson that led to his acquittal? At the trial, James Grigsona psychiatrist known as Doctor Death for frequently recommending the death penalty for defendantswas called as an expert witness. The dropped charges. Defence lawyers argued that it was to be expected that Knox would have used the knife while visiting Sollecito, her boyfriend at the time of the killing. Spread the rumor that a racist cop had killed both Nicole and Ron frame. 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