Government-Funded Study Calls for Major Overhaul of Nation's Crime Labs

By Ben Protess, ProPublica. Posted February 18, 2009.

Forensic science has helped send thousands of suspected murderers, rapists and other alleged criminals to prison.

But according to a much-anticipated report released today by the nation's leading scientific research group, this evidence can't always be trusted. Calling the forensic science system "badly fragmented," the report's authors said their findings could trigger a massive overhaul of the nation's crime labs.

Evidence such as fingerprints, shoeprints, bite marks and hair has been commonplace in the courtroom for decades and popularized on TV shows like CSI. Today's report, however, concluded that independent research is needed to determine whether these methods are actually reliable. (Because DNA evidence has been better studied than these older techniques, the report largely sidestepped critiquing it, despite some instances of DNA testing errors.)

The report, commissioned by Congress and conducted by the National Academy of Sciences, painted a somewhat dire picture of the nation's crime labs. It showed poorly trained technicians using unsubstantiated methods to analyze cases in labs that are often underfunded or poorly supervised.

While the report notes that not all labs face these problems, it concluded that deficiencies are common enough to warrant significant reform.

"Reliable forensic evidence increases the ability of law enforcement officials to identify those who commit crimes, and it protects innocent people from being convicted of crimes they didn't commit," Harry T. Edwards, former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and co-chairman of the committee that produced the report, said in a statement. He added, "There is a tremendous need for the forensic science community to improve."

Most significantly, and perhaps most controversially, the report recommended overhauling how the federal government approaches forensic science by taking it out of the hands of the U.S. Justice Department, which has been criticized for having a lax approach. Congress should create a new, independent federal agency to police crime labs, the report said.

We called a Justice Department spokesman for comment but have not heard back.

The report, which took more than two years to complete, stopped short of recommending a review of past convictions that were potentially influenced by faulty forensic techniques. The committee that wrote the report included Judge Edwards, lawyers, scientists and crime lab officials.

Though its findings are non-binding, the report, mandated by Congress, could influence reform legislation.

One senator, Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who chairs the Judiciary Committee, indicated that changes were to come. "There appear to be far too many weaknesses in our system of forensic science," Leahy said in a statement. "These problems must be corrected as soon as possible."

Peter Neufeld, co-director of the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal group that works to exonerate innocent people, agreed.

"This unprecedented report shows that many forensic techniques which are relied on in courtrooms every day lack scientific support," said Peter Neufeld, co-director of the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal group that works to exonerate innocent people. The report, Neufeld said, "is a major breakthrough toward ensuring that so-called scientific evidence in criminal cases is solid, validated and reliable."

While the report is being heralded by defense attorneys, some crime lab directors also welcomed it, seeing it as an opportunity to raise awareness about the stresses and strains labs face. As we have detailed before, many labs have large and lengthy backlogs of evidence, including DNA, in part due to a lack of resources and staff.

See more stories tagged with: innocence project, forensics, dna testing, patrick leahy, peter neufeld, crime labs, csi, american society for crim, national academy of scien

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