The federal government is moving too slowly, due to a lack of leadership.
— Read on www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/nsc-pandemic-office-trump-closed/2020/03/13/a70de09c-6491-11ea-acca-80c22bbee96f_story.html
This bill forces the state to access the police national DNA database when post conviction forensic testing reveals an unknown profile. HB 7077 would make forensic tests more accessible to convicted felons.
— Read on floridapolitics.com/archives/322663-house-passes-forensic-analysis-reform-for-convicted-felons
49 states to go. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is working with district attorneys and others to examine 81 cases for possible wrongful conviction due to use of microscopic hair analysis, a debunked science.
— Read on oklahomawatch.org/2020/03/10/after-slow-start-state-to-probe-81-convictions-involving-debunked-hair-analysis/
Interesting, since low count DNA testing now is derigeur in police crime labs. DNA decontamination of fingerprint brushes – In The Loop
— Read on www.in-the-loop.net.au/dna-decontamination-of-fingerprint-brushes/
18 Utah-based convictions have been overturned since 1990 with prison sentences ranging from two years to life, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. Utah has approximately 3,000 prison admissions a year, and it is tempting to believe our wrongful conviction rate is equal to our exoneration rate — about 0.02%. However, a study funded…
— Read on dailyutahchronicle.com/2020/03/07/barron-increase-integrity-convictions/
This is a continuing story involving Henry Lee and the crime lab where he has been a decades-long teacher and examiner. Added intrigue has to do with a FBI footprint guru teaching how to “definitely” identify a defendant from a bloody shoe print.
John Prante, from a St. Louis MO suburb, was convicted of Karla Brown’s Wood River IL murder wants his named cleared and a court to declare him innocent because his trial used bite mark teeth comparison evidence that science has debunked.
— Read on www.bnd.com/news/local/article240891706.html
In the US, prosecutors in San Diego investigated the lab worker whose DNA was mixed up in the crime scene samples. He later committed suicide. This case in AU has similar DNA problems.
A rare look into a judge doing his job by using scientific principles to reject decades-long use of exaggerated bullet matching assumptions. Good summation of issues by Radley Balko at WaPo.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/28/dc-judge-issues-much-needed-opinion-junk-science/
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