New report shows faulty forensic evidence in cases of three NC executed
Submitted by deathwatch on Wed, 08/18/2010 - 4:14pm
A report released today by two former FBI agents, commissioned to review North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation laboratory in the wake of the Greg Taylor exoneration, finds that the convictions of three people executed in North Carolina were based in part on forensic reports and testimony that were, to be kind, misleading. The report is available online here.
The executed persons named in the report are Desmond Carter (SBI report confirmed the presence of blood on an item when the test was in fact negative), John Rose (SBI report stated that there were chemical indications for the presence of blood and no further tests were done when in fact further tests were done and were negative), and Timothy Keel (SBI report stated that blood test was inconclusive when in fact subsequent tests were negative).
The report also identified four current death row inmates whose cases involved similar errors by the SBI, as well as five potentially innocent non-death sentenced people who died in prison before this information came to light.
The report is focused on one test performed by one division of the lab between 1987 and 2003, and only looked into cases in which certain language, identified as misleading in the Taylor case, was repeated in the lab’s report. Nonetheless, the survey found 269 defendants who were charged based on faulty evidence.
Imagine how many more potentially innocent persons could be identified through a more comprehensive review.
FYI
The SBI has yet to take any disciplinary action against any of the agents and analysts involved in these cases. In today's press conference, the new head of the SBI said that his agency still needs to conduct an internal review of the matter.
Of special note is Duane Deaver, the agent behind the "misleading" blood test that led to the wrongful conviction of Greg Taylor in 1993. Agent Deaver's deceptions continued up through the Innocence Commission hearing earlier this year, when he claimed that his actions in the case were guided by state and national protocols - which had not yet been written.
Outrageous
This is exactly the sort of news that ought to be front and center, but we treat it as though it were comparable to whether Levi Johnston is or isn't making a porn flick.
How many innocent people have we executed just because the question of whether the burden of proof was met was less impressive than the color of the accused's skin?
When do we get to the part where we start noticing that these dark, angry looking mug shots are depicting human beings whose interests are identical to our own?
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing
-Edmund Burke
So Disturbing
This is horrible. It is bad enough for people to be wrongly convicted because of our technologies not being advanced enough but it is a whole different story for people to be wrongly convicted because of dirty agents purposely giving incorrect information about evidence. I guess no matter how advanced our criminal justice technologies become we will always have to deal with people that can screw up the whole system.
Link disabled ... we will also always have to deal with spam.