Two people were convicted and imprisoned for that brutal affair: Michael Kinge and his mother, Shirley. She found the bathroom she shared with her roommate, Meredith Kercher, covered in blood. Forensic data storage is also a problem. In another instance, a former employee had managed to hold onto an evidence locker pass key six years after leaving the job. Gorkski, a Polish meat factory worker, is appealing his conviction for the murder of Shirley Finlay in Ballymena. We. Microscopic analysis can narrow down a suspects race, hair color, dye treatments, thickness, and many other characteristics, but it cannot determine if the hair is an exact match to a suspect. 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. 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. In 1989, the Harris family of Dryden, New York became the victims of a grisly murder. STORY HIGHLIGHTS. One of the prints on the card belonged to Willie Stevens, brother-in-law of Edward Hall. The following are ten cases where shocking forensic fails bungled the case and allowed murderers to walk away from justiceor sent innocent people to prison. Camm was charged once againthis time as a co-conspirator with Boney. Testimony that hair . Prosecutors also rely on scientific evidence to establish and prove their cases during prosecution. In 1999, the Ford Heights Four won a $36 million in damages from Cook Countythe largest settlement for a civil rights case in U.S. history. 8. The two were . From the beginning, there were issues involving evidence collection. 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. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. Additionally, some jurors have since admitted that the verdict was retribution for the acquittal of white police officers in the beating of Rodney King in 1992. The Sapphire unit was merged with the Metropolitan police forces child abuse division, and bolstered with 100 additional officers in what was essentially a vote of no confidence for what was supposed to be a world-class collection of crime solvers. 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. Evidence Collection However, the prosecutors were able to get their hands on 88,000 e-mails and other messages on Michelle's . Photograph: Stefano Medici/AP. The ensuing investigation resulted in guilty pleas from five troopers and a criminal conviction of the sixth. Fuhrman was accused of planting critical evidence, contaminating it with Simpsons blood, and falsifying police records. Ironically, the work of a man determined to secure criminal convictions, regardless of innocence, may allow an apparently guilty man to go free. Dr. Ralph Erdmann had a reputation as an excellent witness to call to the standif you were a prosecutor. 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. 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. While a police power struggle ensued, reporters flocked to the site of the murder to take pictures, and civilians soon followed. 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. An important bloody fingerprint located on the gateway at Nicole Browns house was not properly collected and entered into the chain of custody when it was first located. 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. This case is documented as the first to establish the modern law of negligence. Between 2010 and 2012, there were over 50 thefts from the state Medical Examiners Office. 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. 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. Whatever the outcome, the jurors must feel that their decision is beyond a reasonable doubt. 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. Death row inmates, however, lose more than time. Eric Garner. Coworkers at the medical examiners office had to work around the clock double-checking the fired technicians findings. In the wake of the legal, ethical, and financial chaos wrought by Annie Dookhan, her punishment may strike many as light. Before mitochondrial testing, the hair of a suspect was tested using microscopic analysis, which shows if the hair has a similar appearance to hair taken from the scene of a crime. A hair was collected from the sweater. Coleman is an author, screenwriter, university student, and tarot reader. Method used to test air for decomposition made its courtroom debut in this trial. Hearn said Pinholster, 58, is the only known example of evidence destruction in a case of a living death row inmate convicted in L.A. County. 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. Photos were taken of critical evidence without scales in them to aid in measurement taking. Nor had the police "respected international standards for the collection and bagging of exhibits", they maintained. Deaver said bloodstain pattern analysis is a "visual examination" and since he did not see blood on the shirt it was not tested. 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. When forensics fail, it isnt just the victims and their families who pay the price. On Tuesday, Matheson unveiled scientific evidence suggesting that Simpson's blood type matches a drop found on a "trail of blood" near the body of his ex-wife, and that her blood type was on a. Because the police department did not have proper collection documents regarding Simpsons blood, it was argued that the police planted Simpsons missing blood on critical evidence and in critical areas of the murder scene. Dookhan was indicted on 27 charges, including obstruction of justice for tampering with evidence, perjury, and even falsifying her university degree. 6. Gabriel Fernandez, an 8-year-old boy, was found dead with multiple trauma wounds on March 22, 2013. Conspiracy theorists helped spread the rumor that a racist cop had killed both Nicole and Ron to frame O.J. Over the course of an 11-hour interrogation, local authorities managed to force a false confession from Livers, who is mentally disabled and eventually buckled under the pressure and repeated threats of incarceration. The recanted testimony was never reported to Willinghams attorneys and the prosecution ultimately cited the statute of limitations. Simpson trial. A civil court awarded the plaintiffs a total of $6.5 milliona gesture which is more symbolic than practical in light of Kofoeds inability to pay the fine. She was right. For example, the police didnt wear caps or change gloves as they collected items, allowing cross-contamination of the objects in the room. Two Rome University professors said there was no certainty that traces of DNA, found on a knife allegedly used in the murder, belonged to Kercher. Harry Thaw in 1905. 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. This is a broad concept that can range from using excessive force, performing illegal searches, selective law . He surrendered his medical license in August 1992, but the huge testimony fail he created is still causing ripples in the system. And, from what is known, its clear that Zains dissembling reach was tremendous. Mrs. Hall was the obvious mastermind. For aspiring forensics professionals, these documented abuses of the science are presented as cautionary tales. 1. October 31, 2014. How many innocent people are serving sentences for crimes they didnt commit? Andersons account of the illegal evidence planting operation wasnt enough to convict every officer he claimed had framed innocent people to pad their arrest numbers. But perhaps the most significant outcome was a rule change requiring more rigorous checks to confirm fingerprint evidence. After pleading guilty to perjury, obstruction of justice, and evidence tampering, she received a prison sentence of three to five years, followed by two years of probation. It was Romanelli who uncovered Kerchers two cell phones in a garden nearby and she requested that the police break into Kerchers room. For nine years, Annie Dookhan worked as a crime lab chemist in Massachusetts, performing drug tests for criminal cases. With police performance measured in numbers of arrests, officers who failed to book enough criminals risked such penalties as being removed from undercover assignments. This was particularly difficult to achieve in this case. Simpsons Bronco truck, his driveway, the foyer of his home, and his bedroom. Separate pieces of evidence were bagged together instead of separately, causing cross-contamination. 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. That first edition attempted to be a comprehensive collection of case law and materials that provided guidance on how electronic information Machine Gun Kelly George "Machine Gun" Kelly was a notorious criminal during the Prohibition era, taking part in bootlegging, kidnapping and armed robbery. In many cases, security for the labs consisted of nothing more than a few cameras and a wire fence. Atty. They lose lives. 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. In at least 26 cases, the technician missed biological evidence that could have been useful for a rape trial. Famous cases Bill Miner. The newer mitochondrial testing of hair is more expensive, but it does exactly match hair to a suspect through DNA. Its a grim burden that grows ever heavier in light of the fact that, for decades, the Houston Police Department crime lab has relied on faulty DNA analyses and bogus courtroom testimony that, according to a lab director, have tainted at least 5,000 to 10,000 cases. Gerald M. LaPorte Westend61, Getty Images (see reuse policy). 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. A card left by the killer was handled by dozens of people in the crowd, making fingerprint forensics useless in court. While he has not been charged yet, he has been suspended while the authorities investigate these allegations. Forensic scientists can be part of the solution. [7] More than 400 terrorist investigations may have been compromised by evidence lost in the fires. Three days later, Camm was arrested for the deaths of his family. However, EDTA is also a chemical found naturally in human blood and chemicals such as paint. 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. For people seeking careers that are simultaneously challenging, meaningful, and exciting, it is tough to beat becoming a crime scene technician. The person who drew the blood could only guess he had taken 8 mL; only 6 mL could be accounted for by the LAPD. district attorney drops or reduces charges in 67 cases over mishandled evidence Dist. Even before the shoddy evidence testing began, samples were often contaminated via a leaky roof. (Evans, 2003) After the police refused, Romanellis friend broke through the door to uncover Kerchers bloody and partially naked body. Lowrys unchecked indiscretions fly in the face of claims that the FBI has a rigorous drug testing policy and raise numerous questions about why the length of time he held onto evidence wasnt questioned, ultimately implicating the FBI as an irresponsible actor. But thats only the beginning. The Knox case. The security of LAPD storage and labs was also brought under scrutiny when it was discovered that some pieces of evidence had been accessed and altered by unauthorized personnel. A suspects laptop and cell phone can show evidence of a crime, motivation, or premeditation. In 2006, he faked DNA evidence that was used to solve the murder of Jessica OGrady. 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. A bloody fingerprint at Nicoles house was noted by a policeman but overlooked by the forensics team. " We are referring to the mother of all courtroom media spectacles: The People of the State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson. O.C. In some ways, it can be said that Dookhan was just giving her superiors what they wanted. A final eyewitness named Marvin Simpson came forward five days after the murders identifying four completely different men as the killers, but the police failed to investigate these claims. But when the unit faced blistering criticism over a barrage of bungles that allowed a prolific rapist to prey on more than 70 women and another to victimize up to 102 people, a number of Sapphire investigators categorized cases incorrectly, attempting to artificially reduce the number of unsolved sexual assaults. An eyewitness claimed to have seen Dennis Williams, Kenneth Adams, and Willie Rainge in the abandoned townhouses where the bodies of the victims were found. A graduate of West Virginia State College, Zain had only managed to pass some of his chemistry courses by the skin of his teeth, while utterly failing in others. After various appeals and retrials, students from the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalismincluding award-winning NPR journalist Laura Sullivanpresented new evidence in 1996. Webb would later recant his testimony, telling a reporter he was mistaken as a result of being on multiple medications for bipolar disorder. Then state crime lab director, Arnold Melnikoff, reported in his analysis that the hair "had characteristics consistent with the defendant (Barry Beach)," a conclusion which was not . The jury disregarded Gibsons testimony, acquitting Mrs. Hall and her brothers of all charges. 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. Not only were there many claims that the evidence was mishandled in the police lab but there were also claims that evidence was planted at the crime scene. 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). But, despite the laudable efforts of local and federal officials to stem the tide of narcotic officer corruption in Philadelphia, rampant corruption is alive and well on the streets of Philadelphia. Its worth noting that as of June 2017, the federal government remains committed to keeping current processes in place. 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. Todd Spitzer has dropped or reduced charges in 67 criminal cases as a result of. In that moment, Lowry single-handedly torpedoed the prosecutions of at least 28 alleged drug offenders, many of whom are thought to be part of dangerous gangs, and he potentially compromised an additional 150 cases. She was also accused of taking cocaine from positive samples and adding it to negative samples to help secure convictions. In a shocking double fail, thieves in Kent, England, had very little trouble stealing a computer server from Forensics Telecommunications Services in 2007. 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 . But, in truth, the lab had been plagued by corruption long before those thefts ever occurred. In addition to spending more than two years in prison for his misdeeds, Kofoed was slapped with a lawsuit for playing God with Sampsons and Liverss lives. An investigation revealed that Dookhan had been dry labbing many of her assignmentsreporting results without performing the actual tests! was acquitted of all charges based on reasonable doubt. Fred Zains academic record does not reveal the makings of a person fit to wield a beaker, let alone work in a forensics lab. For Zains many victims, exoneration and compensation are the only justice possible. Both had been shot. During a Reddit " Ask Me Anything . After 36 years of appeals, the evidence was finally located on the top shelf of a forensics storage room. In 16 cases, pieces of evidence were returned to the wrong rape kit, hindering 19 investigations. The discovery is the latest twist in one of New York's most famous cold cases, and it also revealed a major flaw in the way that evidence can be mishandled by one of the most prestigious police departments in the world. Many experts assert that it can be easily compromised, planted, or deleted without a trace. One of the most frustrating and heartbreaking docu-series in recent memory was The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez. And they werent alone in this scandal. The son of a Sunday school teacher, a long-time law enforcement officer, and an honors graduate of the FBI Academy, Lowry was not exactly the spitting image of drug addiction. On November 2, 2007, American college student Amanda Knox returned to her flat in Perugia, Italy. Erdmann later admitted that he had thrown the head away. Six out of ten of the nations forensic laboratories have been badly burned by arsonists, with thousands of pieces of evidence ending up lost or damaged. "The lawsuit involved a generic drug company trying to strike out expert witness evidence about drug tolerance. 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. But, in at least one other instance, he failed to submit marijuana and guns seized during a crime, and there is some cause to believe that he may have been involved in the displacement of $130,000 confiscated during an FBI search. In addition, O.J. But, like so many corruption cases, Lowrys greatest crime may not be one which exists on any US law book. According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were 1,442 death row executions in the US between 1977 and 2016. 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. 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. Frank Lee Smith, for example, died of cancer on death row, after serving 14 years for a rape and murder he did not commit. In total, those prisoners lost 17,690 years behind bars. The multitude of forensic science scholarships available to students is a testament to the viability of this academic profession, demonstrating promise within the field. Cameron Todd Willingham 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. Erroneous convictions can have immeasurable consequences for exonerees, original crime victims, and families. What happened in the trial of O.J. Simpson case can be found here. Those struggling used the extra drugs to frame innocent people. Doohkan worked for nine years at the Department of Public Health, processing more than 60,000 samples involving 34,000 defendants. 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). Justice Kennedy, with whom The Chief Justice, Jus tice White and Justice Blackmun join, dissenting. In West Virginia alone, Zain may have lied in as many as 182 different cases. Amanda Knox was a 20-year old American citizen living in Perugia, Italy, sharing an apartment with several other women. One of the main issues in the Casey Anthony case was that the prosecution went forward with evidence that the forensic experts told them was questionable. Coupled with confessions from the murderers and DNA evidence, Williams, Adams, Rainge, and Jimerson were finally exonerated after 17 years in prison. 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. During the June 2011 appeals trial, experts uncovered the numerous flaws in the forensic evidence levied against Knox and Sollecito. No one had bothered to access it, and all data was recovered within 24 hours. 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. Coupled with confessions from the murderers and DNA evidence, Williams, Adams, Rainge, and Jimerson were finally exonerated after 17 years in prison. The issue is whether the Sixth Amendment right of confrontation is violated when statements from a child who is unavailable to testify at trial are . A series of arson attacks against forensic laboratories in Brussels has alerted the world to a huge security fail going on in Belgium. Sollecito tried to force the door open and failed, prompting him to call the police. And some of the labs forensic data is believed to have been falsified. Fred Zain died of cancer after the first attempt at holding him accountable for his misdeeds ended in mistrial, and before retrial could begin. On May 11, 1978, newly engaged Carol Schmal and Lawrence Lionberg were found shot in the head. He was sentenced to death and currently sits in prison on death row. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. Even those at the upper echelons of criminal justice have been found guilty of fraud in forensics. A Canadian Pacific . The Ford Heights Fourall black menwere tried by an all-white jury. 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. As the search continues for missing Hampton 4-year-old Codi Bigsby after he was reported missing two weeks ago, Hampton Police Chief Mark Talbot revealed on Monday that his department mishandled the case by not honoring Codi's father's request for legal representation. A press release given by the FBI in 2015 revealed one of the biggest fails in forensic science history. Simpson was accused of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown-Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman on June 12, 1994, between approximately 9:40 p.m. and 10:55 p.m., in the front courtyard of her condominium on Bundy Drive, Brentwood. Photos were taken of critical evidence without scales in them to aid in measurement taking. The large server contained vital evidence for multiple criminal cases. 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. 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). Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon in Surrey, was found dead in a flat she shared with Knox and two Italian women. Advocates from the Innocence Project are now working with the Department of Justice to develop a set of evidence storage guidelines that will hopefully be standardized across the nation in the future.[6]. Grigson cited Willinghams tattoo of a skull and serpent and some of his music posters as evidence that he was a sociopath. All the while, she outpaced her colleagues in productivity, sometimes by a factor of three. The time was 5:55 p.m. It was spring of 1989 and the then-50-year-old Chinese . Research has shown that " analysis of forensic evidence was associated with [increased] case referrals to prosecutors, [and] charges filed ." Evidence from a medical forensic exam can be key in the prosecution of a sexual assault case. Other mistakes included overlooking stains, botched chemical tests, and improperly processed rape kits.[3]. Shirley Kinges plight was one of at least 36 instances of evidence planting perpetrated by members of the New York State Troopers C Division and at least one member of Troop F. Between 1984 and 1992, members of New York State Troopers C Division, and at least one member of Troop F, systematically fabricated fingerprints and other evidence. As in the Zhang case, network logs can be analyzed to identify mass movements or deletions of data and other suspect user activity. (Credit: Hulton Archives/Getty Images) On the night of June 25, 1906, Harry K. Thaw, the son of a railroad and . 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. And, in another case of negligence, Callery failed to fire a chemist who had failed required proficiency tests. 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. 3The Philadelphia PD's Narcotics Unit Resembles A Mafia Operation Every city has ignominious chapters in its history that it would rather forget. Such evidence should have resulted in an open and shut case by todays standards but was not made clear enough to understand at the time. Her university degree immeasurable consequences for exonerees, original crime victims, exoneration and compensation are only! 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