The review comes after The Washington Post reported
in April that Justice Department officials had known for years that
flawed forensic work might have led to the convictions of potentially
innocent people but had not performed a thorough review of the cases. In
addition, prosecutors did not notify defendants or their attorneys even
in many cases they knew were troubled.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced that it will conduct the more expansive review.
“The
Department and the FBI are in the process of identifying historical
cases for review where a microscopic hair examination conducted by the
FBI was among the evidence in a case that resulted in a conviction,”
spokeswoman Nanda Chitre said in a statement. “We have dedicated
considerable time and resources to addressing these issues, with the
goal of reaching final determinations in the coming months.”
FBI spokeswoman Ann Todd deferred comment to the Justice Department.
In
its April report, The Post identified two District men convicted
largely on the testimony of FBI hair analysts who wrongly placed them at
crime scenes. Santae A. Tribble,
now 51, was convicted of killing a taxi driver in 1978, and Kirk L.
Odom, now 49, was convicted of a sexual assault in 1981. Since the Post
report, Tribble’s conviction was vacated, and on Tuesday, prosecutors moved to overturn Odom’s conviction and declare him innocent. The Justice Department had not previously reviewed their cases.
Chitre
said the new review would include help from the Innocence Project, a
New York-based advocacy group for people seeking exoneration through DNA
testing. It also would include the National Association of Criminal
Defense Lawyers.
Steven D. Benjamin, a Richmond lawyer who is
incoming president of the association, called the review “an important
collaboration” and a departure from one-sided government reviews that left defendants in the dark.
“Mistakes
were made. What is important now is our working together to correct
those mistakes,” Benjamin said, adding that his organization will “fully
assist in finding and notifying all those who may have been affected.”
The review comes as the National Academy of Sciences is urging the White House and Congress
to remove crime labs from police and prosecutors’ control, or at least
to strengthen the science and standards underpinning the nation’s
forensic science system.
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