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. Beyond poor evidence collection techniques, sloppy maneuvering at the scene caused more bloody shoe prints to be left behind by LAPD than by the perpetrator. 10 Famous Cases Cracked by Forensics. This put anything he touched in the investigation under scrutiny. According to an examiners study, at least 90 percent of trial transcripts in their Microscopic Hair Comparison Analysis Review contained erroneous statements. Securing the Evidence The cases were reported to include homicide investigations and officer-involved shootings. 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. Apparently, old habits die hard. She told them that just before sunrise, at 5:50 a.m., her ex, John, confronted her on the street with a gun. The prosecution had expert witnesses who testified that the evidence was often mishandled. Investigators exhumed seven bodies that Erdmann had testified about. The new figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal the total number of people whose trials have ended or the charges against them dropped due to a failure to disclose evidence . The government has since identified nearly 3,000 cases for review, based on questionable hair analysis testimony.[8]. Forensic scientists can be part of the solution. This was probably the only case on record where criminals trying to steal old forensics were caught using new forensics.[4]. 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. Deaver said bloodstain pattern analysis is a "visual examination" and since he did not see blood on the shirt it was not tested. 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. If handled properly, forensics can make or break any trial against dangerous criminals. An investigation revealed that Dookhan had been dry labbing many of her assignmentsreporting results without performing the actual tests! Police used forensic evidence found at the scene to track the thieves, which led to their houses. The dropped charges. Robinson was on-site at a Tucson facility in April 2018 when the FBI took the servers into custody pursuant to a federal warrant. Blood samples found inside of Simpsons Bronco, which was discovered outside Simpsons home the next day, were equally matched to Simpson and both victims. Her shoddy forensic work allowed 200 convicted defendants to be freed from custody while their cases were reviewed by officials.[2]. 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. According to a 2010 investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), a detective constable and two trainees revised the statement of a rape survivor to suggest that she had retracted her claims. 10 Examples of Police Intimidation Cases: Wrapping Up. With a team of criminals and incompetents running the drug lab, unconscionable misconduct ensued. Rapists and murderers who arent caught are likely to strike again. Detective Fuhrman was discredited by the prosecution when he was alleged to be a racist and accused of planting evidence. At the heart of the scandal were five forensic investigators from Troop C. According to investigators, these individuals benefited from a culture of lax, and even tacitly complicit, oversight that nurtured a felonious hubris. On March 17, 2002, the jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to 195 years in prison. She was right. You can get free samples of her books here or watch free tarot videos on her YouTube channel here. That first edition attempted to be a comprehensive collection of case law and materials that provided guidance on how electronic information After various appeals and retrials, students from the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalismincluding award-winning NPR journalist Laura Sullivanpresented new evidence in 1996. There's a case out of British Columbia called Regina v Hamdan that goes into some detail on the lack of proper digital evidence collection. O.J. But, when an agent like Matthew Lowry is caught getting high on heroin that he stole from an FBI crime lab, that credence suffers greatly. Without the head, police couldnt run forensic tests on the bullet or match it to their suspect. The Ford Heights Fourall black menwere tried by an all-white jury. He surrendered his medical license in August 1992, but the huge testimony fail he created is still causing ripples in the system. Gorkski, a Polish meat factory worker, is appealing his conviction for the murder of Shirley Finlay in Ballymena. In 2006, he faked DNA evidence that was used to solve the murder of Jessica OGrady. The multitude of forensic science scholarships available to students is a testament to the viability of this academic profession, demonstrating promise within the field. The judge made some good points and some that made it obvious that they aren't tech savvy but still a good read. Miner was a clever and successful "Gentleman Bandit" who continually eluded police both in the United States and Canada. [10] No one can say for certain how many innocent prisoners have been executed, died in prison, or served time for crimes that they did not commit. 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. 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. 4.1 Kimberly Long. Everyone from criminals to harmless grandmothers were targets of the 39th district, as feared figures like the infamous John Baird ran roughshod over mostly poor black citizens with virtual legal impunity for years. The grim implications of such a callous disregard for the law were clear: In order to improve the Sapphire units image, these three men were willing to deny victims justice and permit violent predators to roam free among the vulnerable. 6. 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; But, for residents of Douglas County, Nebraska, those three letters could just as easily stand for Criminal Subterfuge in Investigations thanks to disgraced David Kofoed, whose tenure as chief of the local CSI division was marred by the willful manipulation of DNA evidence in a series of murder cases. In West Virginia alone, Zain may have lied in as many as 182 different cases. 5 Contact a California Criminal Defense Lawyer at The Law Offices of Kerry L. Armstrong, APLC Today. Coworkers at the medical examiner's office had to work around the clock double-checking the fired technician's findings. He fled on foot and attempted to fight an officer. The millionaire who gunned down the high-society architect. The mistakes of a single unidentified lab technician forced the New York medical examiners office to review 843 rape cases for DNA evidence which could have been improperly processed. Simpson case can be found here. One of the drug thieves, James Woodson, was hired despite allegations that he had stolen evidence from the New Castle Police Department in Delaware. The person who drew the blood could only guess he had taken 8 mL; only 6 mL could be accounted for by the LAPD. I can't find the actual judge's decision. 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 . 3The Philadelphia PD's Narcotics Unit Resembles A Mafia Operation Every city has ignominious chapters in its history that it would rather forget. 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. Without perfect organization and updated records, things inevitably go missing, and when they do, defendants end up paying a very steep price. Lauren. And, in another case of negligence, Callery failed to fire a chemist who had failed required proficiency tests. Sollecito tried to force the door open and failed, prompting him to call the police. 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. Understanding Forensic Science The errors came to light when lawyers from the Innocence Project and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers got together with members from the Department of Justice and the FBI to ensure more thorough testing and testimony. For aspiring forensics professionals, these documented abuses of the science are presented as cautionary tales. This article explores five fascinating cases of fraud in forensics to underscore the importance of using scientifically valid and reliable methods in this growing career field. For people seeking careers that are simultaneously challenging, meaningful, and exciting, it is tough to beat becoming a crime scene technician. Wrongfully convicted suspects, grieving family members, and the victims of violent criminals who should have been behind bars all suffer because of this ongoing forensic storage fail. Gabriel Fernandez, an 8-year-old boy, was found dead with multiple trauma wounds on March 22, 2013. Failure to secure the scene was just the beginning of this forensic fiasco. But a small number of cases around the country have . It is reported that the DNA evidence showed that the chance that some of the blood found near the bodies came from anyone but Simpson was 1 in 170 million. Guede was given a 16-year sentence after a plea bargain. Michelle Theer (2000): On December 17 th, 2000, John Diamond shot and killed Air Force Captain Marty Theer. 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. Subsequent exploration of Kofoeds other cases revealed a pattern of dubious handiwork. On April 27, a woman in eastern Brooklyn called the police. Although it was documented in his notes by Detective Mark Fuhrman, one of the first to arrive on the scene, no further action was taken to secure it. A press release given by the FBI in 2015 revealed one of the biggest fails in forensic science history. Dr. Ralph Erdmann had a reputation as an excellent witness to call to the standif you were a prosecutor. Sometimes, the stolen items were replaced with false evidence. Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon in Surrey, was found dead in a flat she shared with Knox and two Italian women. Two years later, having been convicted only of kidnapping, Bundy was preparing to stand . Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. After the police refused, Romanellis friend broke through the door to uncover Kerchers bloody and partially naked body. But thats only the beginning. Testimony that hair . During a Reddit " Ask Me Anything . Shocking reports have been filed against crime labs, police departments, and sheriffs offices concerning improper, underfunded, and outrageously inadequate forensic storage facilities. In 1989, the Harris family of Dryden, New York became the victims of a grisly murder. John Vasquez, who worked in evidence management for 25 years, admitted that during his career, hed seen unlabeled evidence tossed into a closet, a hand grenade stored in a glass jar, boxes of corrosive chemicals leaking onto other boxes of evidence, and forensic samples stored in a clerks office next to employees food and drinks. According to the Innocence Project, out of 329 wrongful convictions overturned by new DNA testing, 74 were due to erroneous microscopic hair evidence. Famous cases Bill Miner. On March 27, 2015, both Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were exonerated for the murder of Meredith Kercher. Both had been shot. She had been shot in the head . was acquitted of all charges based on reasonable doubt. A state forensic analyst claimed that Camms t-shirt had been stained with the wifes blood in patterns suggesting he was the perpetrator. After 36 years of appeals, the evidence was finally located on the top shelf of a forensics storage room. A series of arson attacks against forensic laboratories in Brussels has alerted the world to a huge security fail going on in Belgium. A Canadian Pacific . On September 28, 2000, David Camma retired Indiana State Trooperreturned home to find his wife and two children dead of gunshot wounds. "Not only should we not always trust the machine, we can't always trust the person that interprets the machine." Dror and Nina Sunde at the University of Oslo, Norway, gave 53 digital forensics. 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In 2015, the FBI admitted to decades of relying on faulty hair analysis in trials, a grave error in criminal proceedings. The DNA lab in Charleroi, recently struck by arsonists in 2016, had previously been attacked in 2001 and 2003, while the forensic laboratory in Ghent University had been targeted in 2005. When his son failed to respond, he called 911. One of the greatest tragedies in the criminal justice system is the conviction of a person for a crime he or she did not commit. While walking along the outside of the house, Mark Fuhrman uncovered a matching bloody glove to one found at the crime scene. In the absence of good faith efforts to prove a suspects guilt or innocence, the societal dominoes that build our criminal justice system collapse into a tragic heap. 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. Dubbed "The Phantom of Heilbronn," the anonymous woman's genetic material was detected at the scene of more than forty crimes over a two-decade period. He did not perform a thorough psychiatric evaluation. He estimated internal organ weight measurements for subjects that had never been cut open. But perhaps the most significant outcome was a rule change requiring more rigorous checks to confirm fingerprint evidence. Machine Gun Kelly George "Machine Gun" Kelly was a notorious criminal during the Prohibition era, taking part in bootlegging, kidnapping and armed robbery. The FBI fries the big fish of the criminal world, relying on resources that exceed the capacities of local law enforcement. DNA testing then proved that he wasnt a murderer. In 2006, the lab rehired a forensic analyst who previously resigned under suspicion of falsifying data. In addition to bearing the financial burden of revisiting tainted convictions, the government has agreed to award $1,000 for each hour of wrongful incarceration endured by an innocent person, leading to compensation for at least 25 people believed to have been booked on bad evidence. Erdmann later admitted that he had thrown the head away. The consequences of that complacency have been devastating for Massachusetts. 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. 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. recent interviews with three prominent professors, the police didnt wear caps or change gloves as they collected items, planted evidence on the part of the detectives, a fire ravaged Cameron Todd Willinghams house killing his two-year-old daughter and one-year-old twins, National Criminal Justice Month 2021: An Advocacy Toolkit, Homicide Investigations: How to Determine Time of Death, How To Become a Crime Scene Technician - Education & Certification Guide. Over a span of 13 years, prosecutors in two states sought out Zains ostensibly expert opinions, never questioning the fact that he managed to produce evidence with a certainty that other lab technicians couldnt approach.