From the BBC: FBI admits forensic evidence errors in hundreds of cases.
When it is done intentionally it isn’t an ‘error’, it is a crime: perjury at a minimum. People were executed based on the lies created by the FBI’s analysis of the evidence.
Hundreds of cases will have to be reviewed, basically every case that used hair analysis performed at the FBI lab that resulted in a conviction.
On-line Opinion Magazine featuring annoyed rumblings from the leading edge of the Baby Boom firmly tied to a reality-based world.
Established: 21 November 2004
The opinions expressed in Comments are those of the individuals making them. Truly absurd comments and opinions are subject to being cruelly mocked, but "flame wars" will take place on someone else's dime.
Your first comment, all comments with extensive links, and random comments that the software decides it doesn't like for no discernible reason will be held for moderation.
[Be aware that for unknown reasons the software rejects comments shorter than 15 characters, so if you want to leave a short comment fill the gap with periods ........]
6 comments
In some ways the FBI is the same institution that Hoover established. Ill begun is half undone…
What really pisses me off is that when you convict an innocent person, a guilty person walks free. That doesn’t seem to get through to these fools.
I think their notion is, “eh, the real criminals, they’ll do something else we’ll catch them for, let’s just close this case with this poor schlub and move on.” Bah.
Usually they cover by claiming that the suspects were probably guilty of something, so it doesn’t really matter what you convict them of, as long as you convict them.
Yeah, that’s the other half of the equation. I was more interested in how they justify letting the real perp off when they convict the wrong guy.
They really almost never admit they prosecuted to wrong person, even in the face of irrefutable evidence. Their common reaction is that the new evidence is ‘a technicality’.