And some of the labs forensic data is believed to have been falsified. H.E. But, despite even the presence of eyewitnesses who could attest to grotesque law enforcement misconduct, charges leveled against Baird and other officers were consistently dismissed as baseless until Philadelphia investigators and federal agents finally began pursuing the matter in 1991. 4 Wrongful Conviction Cases in California. She had been shot in the head . 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. Defense attorneys became suspicious because Erdmann seemed to be able to supply prosecutors with whatever testimony they needed, without the proper testing to back up his reports. 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. Erdmann pleaded no contest to seven felonies regarding false evidence and botched autopsies. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. 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. Photograph: Stefano Medici/AP. What had sealed the case against the pair at their trial, which began in January 2009 and ended with their conviction the following December, was testimony from police scientific experts which seemed to support the prosecutors' claim that Kercher died in a sex game involving all three defendants. Separate pieces of evidence were bagged together instead of separately, causing cross-contamination. Here are a few famous cases where digital forensics played a crucial role. Erroneous convictions can have immeasurable consequences for exonerees, original crime victims, and families. Every city has ignominious chapters in its history that it would rather forget. Prior to exiting a taxi at the fast food chain Popeye's in New York last October, Franqueira refused to pay his fare and pulled a gun on the driver. Simpson We'd be remiss if we started our list anywhere other than the case dubbed the " trial of the century. Prosecutors misplaced most of the evidence, the autopsy report, and grand jury testimony records that would have pointed toward Mrs. Hall as a suspect. After 36 years of appeals, the evidence was finally located on the top shelf of a forensics storage room. As a private contractor, he performed more than 3,000 autopsies in 41 jurisdictions spread out over West Texas. Two years later, having been convicted only of kidnapping, Bundy was preparing to stand . Theres no shortage of crime-fighting TV shows where protagonists brandish the latest forensic science techniques. You can get free samples of her books here or watch free tarot videos on her YouTube channel here. This case is documented as the first to establish the modern law of negligence. O.J. Microscopic comparisons were very convincing to juries, especially when linked with testimony from forensic experts claiming that the hair matched a suspect. 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. This blatant falsification of a crime report, the IPCC found, was part of a concerted effort by senior officials in the Sapphire unit to improve the rate of solved rape cases in part by recording a higher number of non-offenses. An investigation revealed that Dookhan had been dry labbing many of her assignmentsreporting results without performing the actual tests! In 2015, the FBI admitted to decades of relying on faulty hair analysis in trials, a grave error in criminal proceedings. Shocking reports have been filed against crime labs, police departments, and sheriffs offices concerning improper, underfunded, and outrageously inadequate forensic storage facilities. Her maid eventually told police that Mrs. Hall had bribed her to provide an alibi and that she had gone with her brothers to confront Edward and Eleanor in Lovers Lane that night. Nov. 22, 2019. Unfortunately, Dookhan wasnt some laboratory wunderkind with a passion for drug offenses. The maid warned police that the ministers wife had a network of spies around town to keep tabs on Edwards affair. The case caught a break in 2005 when the DNA of career criminal, Charles Boney, was matched to a sweatshirt at the scene of the crime. However, additional evidence later led authorities to the actual perpetrators of the double homicide and exposed Kofoeds deception. The experts at the appeal court were scathing yesterday in their criticism of the reliability of that evidence. In 2006, the lab rehired a forensic analyst who previously resigned under suspicion of falsifying data. Doohkan worked for nine years at the Department of Public Health, processing more than 60,000 samples involving 34,000 defendants. Sadly, Willingham was found guilty and executed February 17, 2004. Fingerprint evidence that tied her to gasoline cans used in the arson had been planted by New York State Troopers. 6. Since the discovery of Dookhans conduct, at least 1,100 criminal cases have been dropped or dismissed and at least $8.5 million has been spent attempting to account for her mountain of faked lab data. For example, the Innocence Project aims to free the staggering number of innocent people who remain incarcerated, and to bring reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment. Founded in 1992 by Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck, it has helped to free 350 people on DNA evidence and identified 149 alternative perpetrators as of June 2017. Some costs, however, may be incalculable. Ironically, the work of a man determined to secure criminal convictions, regardless of innocence, may allow an apparently guilty man to go free. 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. Items were photographed without being labeled and logged, making it difficult, if not impossible, to link the photos to any specific area of the scene. Sometimes, the stolen items were replaced with false evidence. Vasquez also had claimed that Willinghams first and second-degree burns were most likely self-inflicted with the intent to avert suspicion. While interviewing with the CIA, Harding touted his evidence planting exploits as an example of his ability to conduct covert operations, somehow failing to comprehend that admitting to a string of serious crimes might get him in trouble with the government. 3The Philadelphia PD's Narcotics Unit Resembles A Mafia Operation Every city has ignominious chapters in its history that it would rather forget. One of the examiners most aggravating mistakes was the loss of an entire head, which contained a bullet from the killers gun. 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. And in addition to his work in a Texas crime lab, Zain served as a forensics consultant to 10 other states, creating the possibility that he lied across thousands of primarily rape and murder trials. For Zains many victims, exoneration and compensation are the only justice possible. 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. Frank Lee Smith, for example, died of cancer on death row, after serving 14 years for a rape and murder he did not commit. A two-day appeal hearing which was due to take place next month has now been put. As in the Zhang case, network logs can be analyzed to identify mass movements or deletions of data and other suspect user activity. 130796. Rebuffing scientists who had presented evidence of false applications of DNA analysis, Attorney General Jeff Sessions stated, I dont think we should suggest that those proven scientific principles that weve been using for decades are somehow uncertain and leaving prosecutors having to fend off challenges on the most basic issues in a trial (Washington Post, April 2017). At least 18 of those prisoners have been proven innocent through updated DNA testing. In the results-driven world of laboratory work, her virtually inhuman ability to amass test results placed Dookhan in a position of distinction. Theyd been stabbed multiple times. In some ways, it can be said that Dookhan was just giving her superiors what they wanted. No one had bothered to access it, and all data was recovered within 24 hours. 1 The Central Park 5. The defense team stated that EDTA was found in the samples of blood that were collected at the crime scene. 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. 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. In an article called " 8 Famous Faces Who Were Falsely Accused Of A Crime" has a case of a man named Dewey Bozella, who is a boxer, was accused of murdering a elderly woman in her apartment at the age of 18. Cameron Todd Willingham This faith in Zains abilities sent untold numbers of innocent men behind bars, primarily for rape and murder charges. In short, forensic science depends not only on types of evidence with foundational and applied validity, but also on the dedicated efforts of ethics-minded groups such as the Innocence Project. 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The PCAST publication cast doubt on common forensics methods due to insufficient testing. The reputation of Brooklyns officers has been doubly besmirched, as not only had they likely been arresting innocent people for years as a matter of convenience, but they covered up that behavior by casting themselves as heroic wrongdoers when, in reality, they were simply doing wrong. Between 2010 and 2012, there were over 50 thefts from the state Medical Examiners Office. According to Officer Steve Anderson, who himself was caught partaking in the scheme, this translated into undercover narcotics agents handing over some of the drugs purchased during covert operations to officers who were struggling to meet arrest quotas. On June 13, 1994, the bodies of Ron Goldman and the ex-wife of OJ Simpson, Nicole Brown, were found outside of Browns home. Lost evidence has collapsed 6,000 cases including alleged killers and rapists Crime expert fears that 12,000 prosecutions have failed in the past two years because pieces of evidence that. A lawmans brother was later caught trying to sell some of the documents to reporters. During the third trial, the defense presented evidence that the initial blood splatter expert had falsified his credentials and had no history of working with blood splatters. Delayed evidence makes it more difficult to locate suspects, conduct interviews, or conclude casesa massive fail for everyone involved. But they may explain why Zain spent the duration of his forensics career habitually faking lab results and lying to courtrooms in order to secure criminal convictions. During the June 2011 appeals trial, experts uncovered the numerous flaws in the forensic evidence levied against Knox and Sollecito. 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. (Evans, 2003) Sheriff's Department headquarters and O.C. If handled properly, forensics can make or break any trial against dangerous criminals. While the future of forensics methods is beyond the scope of this article, its important to remember examples where the collection or processing of evidence have failed. Lauren. 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. And, in another case of negligence, Callery failed to fire a chemist who had failed required proficiency tests. Once Meredith Kerchers room was thoroughly searched, police uncovered fingerprints and DNA belonging to Rudy Guede, who had gone on a date with the victim the night of her murder. Understanding Forensic Science The Austin Police Department, for example, stores at least 600,000 items, with approximately 60,000 new pieces of evidence being processed each year. They added that a trace of Sollecito's DNA on Kercher's bra clip, the vital piece of evidence linking him to the murder scene, could have got there by contamination, as the defence team said at the trial. Few cases in history have been more focused on forensic evidence than the O.J. The daylight murder of the disabled 18-year-old on Aug. 5, 2000, galvanized a drug-racked neighborhood otherwise numb to the grim pornography of casual, curbside killings . For an unattended death, law enforcement must use a combination of investigative techniques and science to calculate how much time elapsed between the victim taking their last breath and their remains being found. Dookhan was indicted on 27 charges, including obstruction of justice for tampering with evidence, perjury, and even falsifying her university degree. The officer who arrested Oscar Pistorius on the night Reeva Steenkamp was killed last year testified Friday that police at the crime scene mishandled evidence, including a ballistics expert who. False or misleading forensic evidence was a contributing factor in 24% of all wrongful convictions nationally, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, which tracks both DNA and non-DNA based exonerations.1 This includes convictions based on forensic evidence that is unreliable or invalid and expert testimony that is misleading. 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. 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. For 14 years, the lab relied on malfunctioning equipment that incorrectly logged all evidence entry dates as January 1, 1970. In addition, eight officers were ultimately convicted for their crimes, reversing a longstanding trend of wrongfully incarcerating innocent people in the city of the Liberty Bell. When his son failed to respond, he called 911. Throughout the investigation, there were issues with how evidence was secured. 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. The next day brought another disturbing discovery: A county road worker found 16-year-old Patricia Kalitzke's body in an area north of Great Falls, the paper reports. 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. It is the defense attorney's job to speak for the defendant and to cast doubt on the prosecution's case. O.J. Drunk Police Officer. His parents were both charged and convicted of murdering Gabriel due to signs of abuse. If evidence with Simpsons blood showed traces of EDTA, the defense claimed, then that blood had to have come from the lab, which meant that it was planted. No one knows how many innocent men and women have been put to death because of faulty forensics or inaccurate experts. While some of those men were exonerated, the exact number of cases influenced by Zain is unknowable. For Philadelphia, one of those chapters is undoubtedly devoted to its 39th district police officers. A card left by the killer was handled by dozens of people in the crowd, making fingerprint forensics useless in court. Furthermore, Johnny Webb, a jailhouse informant, testified against Willingham claiming he had confessed to the arson leading to the murders. It wasnt until many years later that investigators would attribute his wounds to Willingham being in the fire before the flashover (i.e., when the entire room suddenly ignites in flames). Forensic data storage is also a problem. The detectives who took over Fuhrmans shift apparently were never aware of the print and eventually, it was lost or destroyed without ever being collected. Death row inmates, however, lose more than time. Forensic evidence is crucial to crime scene investigators. After spending 680 days in jail awaiting trial on murder and robbery charges, an Oklahoma City man was finally acquitted late last month. Simpsons Bronco truck, his driveway, the foyer of his home, and his bedroom. He spent 26 years in jail before a group called The . 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. 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. Perhaps the most famous instance of forensic evidence in Australia, before the advent of DNA, followed the abduction on 7 July 1960 in Sydney of the 8-year-old son of Mr and Mrs Thorne, Graham. In the state of Texas, Americas death penalty capital, forensic analysts weighing in on cases of rape and murder literally tip the scales in favor of life or death for a defendant. The law of negligence in place at the time only really came into play through a contract, which in this case there was none. 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. After various appeals and retrials, students from the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalismincluding award-winning NPR journalist Laura Sullivanpresented new evidence in 1996. Over her career, Dookhan completed as many as 60,000 analyses, making her partly responsible for an estimated 11,000 criminal convictions. Securing the Evidence 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. And, from what is known, its clear that Zains dissembling reach was tremendous. Miner was a clever and successful "Gentleman Bandit" who continually eluded police both in the United States and Canada. grimm's geometric stacker famous cases where evidence was mishandled At trial, several issues became evident, including: Roughly 1.5 ml of Simpson's blood was mysteriously absent from a container; The blood was not immediately entered into the chain of custody; The theft proved pointless, however, when police discovered that all of the information on the servers involved old cases that had already been tried in court. In fact, she didnt even have the masters degree she claimed to have earned. When asked if he had falsified police reports or planted evidence in the Simpson case, he invoked his 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination. In 2009, the convictions were reversed by the Indiana Supreme Court. Mishandled Evidence Should Have Prompted a Mistrial. At least 140 people have been released from death row during that time because of forensic evidence which was tainted, flawed, or outright false. The government obtained warrants to search Mr. Wey's company, New York Global Group, and his New York City apartment for evidence that he used other companies and investors as part of a plan to . One of them, Briton Meredith Kercher, was murdered on . 1. The case, which earned Kofoed his first and greatest encounter with infamy, revolved around the suspects in a double murder: Nicolas Sampson and Matt Livers. The integrity of the criminal justice system is intimately intertwined with the belief that we can trust the analysis of crime scene evidence. In addition, O.J. People are being sentenced to jail for life or are being put on death row. She served only three years in jail for her crimes and is now free, just like the dangerous Dookhan Defendants she put back on the streets. 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. He reported another death as homicide caused by blunt force trauma, which was revealed to be an accidental drowning.[9]. This is a broad concept that can range from using excessive force, performing illegal searches, selective law . Lawyers, experts say forensic evidence was too experimental for courtroom. October 31, 2014. O.C. In recent interviews with three prominent professors, www.forensicscolleges.com explored the impact of a recent bombshell in the community: a September 2016 report from the Presidents Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Sollecito tried to force the door open and failed, prompting him to call the police. O.J. Her shoddy forensic work allowed 200 convicted defendants to be freed from custody while their cases were reviewed by officials.[2]. While walking along the outside of the house, Mark Fuhrman uncovered a matching bloody glove to one found at the crime scene. While a police power struggle ensued, reporters flocked to the site of the murder to take pictures, and civilians soon followed. 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 collection and meticulous analysis of evidence arent easy processes and the techniques are still far from perfect. At the trial, James Grigsona psychiatrist known as Doctor Death for frequently recommending the death penalty for defendantswas called as an expert witness. During the trial, all of the missteps of the forensic team came to light, including the possibility of evidence tampering (and obvious evidence mishandling), as well as the glaring absence of evidence security. Failure to secure the scene was just the beginning of this forensic fiasco. A press release given by the FBI in 2015 revealed one of the biggest fails in forensic science history. He did not perform a thorough psychiatric evaluation. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. Yet, at some point during his five years as a Washington, D.C. FBI agent, he lost his way and was eventually found at the wheel of an FBI vehicle under the influence of drugs. Over the course of a 14-year career, Baird was the target of nearly two dozen official complaints related to his propensity for police brutality, inflated criminal charges, robbing drug dealers, and the wholesale planting of narcotic evidence on innocent peoplean impressive list of evils to say the least. Fuhrman was accused of planting critical evidence, contaminating it with Simpsons blood, and falsifying police records. In 16 cases, pieces of evidence were returned to the wrong rape kit, hindering 19 investigations. The Thornes had just been named as the winners of the Opera House lottery, established to raise money to build Joern Utzon's masterpiece. Not only is there a huge volume of data collected for current investigations, but there is also a huge volume of digital forensics that must be stored indefinitely, in case of later appeals. Prosecutorial misconduct complaints against several lawyers and police officers who worked regularly with Erdmann claimed that the lawmen bribed, threatened, or encouraged the doctor to provide whatever evidence was needed to secure a conviction. An additional 500 convictions are slated to be challenged with thousands more in the works. It was spring of 1989 and the then-50-year-old Chinese . Jurors, infuriated by evidence of racism within the LAPD, questioned whether the missing blood was a result of planted evidence on the part of the detectives. Forensic analyst James Bolding demonstrated overwhelming incompetence and willful dishonesty in his work, appearing not to grasp even the basics of blood sample analysis, while providing courtroom testimony that wrongfully imprisoned men like George Rodriguez, who languished behind bars for 17 years for a rape he didnt commit, and Josiah Sutton, who was wrongly incarcerated for four years. Nearly everyone in the town of New Brunswick, New Jersey, seemed to know that Reverend Edward Wheeler Hall and choir singer Eleanor Reinhardt Mills were in love. In total, those prisoners lost 17,690 years behind bars. The expert's affidavit merely referenced to a homepage link and did not specify nor attach any webpage to be presented as exhibits. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. California O.C. In reality, not all blood spatter can be seen with the naked eye. In 2003, Kofoed linked Ivan Henk to the murder of four-year-old Brendan Gonzales with what was likely a manufactured blood sample that prompted Henks arrest and eventual guilty plea. Justice Kennedy, with whom The Chief Justice, Jus tice White and Justice Blackmun join, dissenting. Sheriff had investigator probe into evidence mishandling even though he had mishandled evidence O.C. A Question of Character STORY HIGHLIGHTS. March is National Criminal Justice Month. Forensic scientists can be part of the solution. Schmal had been raped seven times. During a Reddit " Ask Me Anything . To better understand the tragic rippling effect of the lost evidence in this case, keep reading. Troop Cs incorrigible corruption might have gone unchecked were it not for a miscalculation by former trooper David Harding. Key points: Kelly says she was told police no longer have forensic evidence from her rape kit Right from the start, there seemed to be a mountain of mishandled evidence, yet none was more compelling, or more badly bungled, than the blood forensics. In a separate, more jarring, example of wanton duplicity, detective constable Ryan Coleman-Farrow, another member of the allegedly elite Sapphire unit, simply declined to pursue the claims of at least 12 women who reported sexual assaults between 2007 and 2010. This case involves defendant James Franqueira, a 32-year-old Vermont resident. Coworkers at the medical examiners office had to work around the clock double-checking the fired technicians findings. Autopsy reports indicated that most of Kerchers injuriesbruising and cuts near the genital regionwere sustained as a result of being restrained during the sexual violence. Police misconduct is any action done by a police officer that is illegal, inappropriate, or against police policies. Preliminary testing revealed that the doctor had faked at least 100 of his autopsies, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. Detective Fuhrman was discredited by the prosecution when he was alleged to be a racist and accused of planting evidence. Grigson cited Willinghams tattoo of a skull and serpent and some of his music posters as evidence that he was a sociopath. Erdmann later admitted that he had thrown the head away. But, after spending two and a half years of a 17- to 44-year sentence behind bars for burglary and arson, Shirley Kinge was released. Boney ultimately claimed it was Camm who murdered the family. To read about times when forensics worked much better, check out Top 10 Murder Mysteries Finally Solved Using Forensics and 10 Notorious Historical Murders Solved Using Early Forensics. Not only did several key witnesses against Mrs. Hall disappear forever, but forensic evidence did as well. 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