Lost evidence has collapsed 6,000 cases including alleged killers and rapists Crime expert fears that 12,000 prosecutions have failed in the past two years because pieces of evidence that. Fred Zain died of cancer after the first attempt at holding him accountable for his misdeeds ended in mistrial, and before retrial could begin. Detective Fuhrman was discredited by the prosecution when he was alleged to be a racist and accused of planting evidence. The world watched every detail of the case on Court TV, which highlighted the many mistakes of forensics investigators as an epic fail. 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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. Evidence showed that Epstein had transferred over $30 million to Maxwell, his onetime girlfriend, during and after a stretch of years from 1994 to 2004 when they were most closely connected . The PCAST publication cast doubt on common forensics methods due to insufficient testing. The prosecution had expert witnesses who testified that the evidence was often mishandled. 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. 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. Other mistakes included overlooking stains, botched chemical tests, and improperly processed rape kits.[3]. Every city has ignominious chapters in its history that it would rather forget. Eleanors tongue had been removed, a horrifying insult to her love of singing. Both the LAPD lab and O.J.s Bronco were found to have been accessed by unauthorized personnel, giving the jury ample excuse to distrust the blood evidence that had been collected there. 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. Among the mounds of evidence, there was a glass wine decanter, a clock radio and hair samples, all kept in evidence bags after being collected from the March 5, 1985 murder scene. 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. The potential breakthrough for Knox and Sollecito came just two days after their case suffered a hefty setback. The defense team stated that EDTA was found in the samples of blood that were collected at the crime scene. 6 captivating court cases that had Americans glued to their screens 1. 2 Henry and Leon McCollum. In 2015, the FBI admitted to decades of relying on faulty hair analysis in trials, a grave error in criminal proceedings. 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. Evidence Collection But the sheer scale of ineptitude and invalidation wrought by this crime lab arguably rivals the grievous nature of the crimes it was tasked with solving. And, from what is known, its clear that Zains dissembling reach was tremendous. This was particularly difficult to achieve in this case. Gibson claimed to have heard a female voice call out, Henry! before the fatal shots were fired. For people seeking careers that are simultaneously challenging, meaningful, and exciting, it is tough to beat becoming a crime scene technician. The expert's affidavit merely referenced to a homepage link and did not specify nor attach any webpage to be presented as exhibits. But they said it could not have been the murder weapon as its profile was inconsistent with the slash wounds on Kercher's throat. Knox, 23, from the US, and Sollecito, 27, an Italian, are serving sentences of 26 and 25 years respectively for the murder. 10 Examples of Police Intimidation Cases: Wrapping Up. O.J. Firefox was used to access an address with "chloroform.htm.". Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. She had been shot in the head . In a shocking double fail, thieves in Kent, England, had very little trouble stealing a computer server from Forensics Telecommunications Services in 2007. False or misleading forensic evidence was a contributing factor in 24% of all wrongful convictions nationally, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, which tracks both DNA and non-DNA based exonerations.1 This includes convictions based on forensic evidence that is unreliable or invalid and expert testimony that is misleading. As a private contractor, he performed more than 3,000 autopsies in 41 jurisdictions spread out over West Texas. 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. A suspects laptop and cell phone can show evidence of a crime, motivation, or premeditation. To add to the problem, the blood was not immediately turned over as evidence but was carried around for several hours before it was entered into the chain of custody, allowing for speculation of when and how the 1.5 mL of blood may have disappeared. 3 Duke University Lacrosse Team. Fred Zains academic record does not reveal the makings of a person fit to wield a beaker, let alone work in a forensics lab. Among those convicted on fraudulent evidence are 32 defendants sentenced to death, 14 of whom have either died in prison or already been executed. He blamed the situation on the deplorable funding for storage, coupled with low pay for overworked evidence clerks. The athlete's lawyer said some images showed "great. Sollecito tried to force the door open and failed, prompting him to call the police. Some costs, however, may be incalculable. The collection and meticulous analysis of evidence arent easy processes and the techniques are still far from perfect. 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. The chance that blood found on Simpsons sock could be from someone other than Nicole Brown was 1 in 21 billion. The family of four was bound and gagged, a 15-year-old female raped and tortured, and the whole family shot in the head before their home was set on fire. Troop Cs incorrigible corruption might have gone unchecked were it not for a miscalculation by former trooper David Harding. The Austin Police Department, for example, stores at least 600,000 items, with approximately 60,000 new pieces of evidence being processed each year. Rachelle Jackson. The cases were reported to include homicide investigations and officer-involved shootings. Coupled with confessions from the murderers and DNA evidence, Williams, Adams, Rainge, and Jimerson were finally exonerated after 17 years in prison. Dookhan was indicted on 27 charges, including obstruction of justice for tampering with evidence, perjury, and even falsifying her university degree. Sheriff had investigator probe into evidence mishandling even though he had mishandled evidence O.C. 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). The time was 5:55 p.m. 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. Conspiracy theorists helped spread the rumor that a racist cop had killed both Nicole and Ron to frame O.J. 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. According to an examiners study, at least 90 percent of trial transcripts in their Microscopic Hair Comparison Analysis Review contained erroneous statements. Podlecki also testified that both Williams and Adams tested positive for being type A secretors, an assertion later refuted by an independent forensic witness. Few questioned it when, in 2010, as her lab saw a drastic decrease in the number of drug analyses completed, Dookhans output skyrocketed, accounting for an astounding 31 percent of all the evidence processed by her lab10,933 samples in all. For Philadelphia, one of those chapters is undoubtedly devoted to its 39th district police officers. To read about times when forensics worked much better, check out Top 10 Murder Mysteries Finally Solved Using Forensics and 10 Notorious Historical Murders Solved Using Early Forensics. Joseph Sledge, for example, served 36 years for a crime in North Carolina, but he could have been out decades earlier if police hadnt misplaced evidence from his trial. 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 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. Frank Lee Smith, for example, died of cancer on death row, after serving 14 years for a rape and murder he did not commit. 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. 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. One of the few witnesses brave enough to testify against Mrs. Hall was Jane Gibson, a swine herder who became known as the Pig Lady in the press. But thats only the beginning. In 2014, a group of police officers was apprehended after executing a vicious extortion plot that involved kidnapping, threats, and even holding criminal suspects out of windows. Two people were convicted and imprisoned for that brutal affair: Michael Kinge and his mother, Shirley. A woman who waited a decade for detectives to charge the man accused of raping her is the second alleged victim pursuing a complaint about Queensland police losing forensic evidence. 10. In 2002, the facility was closed due to unacceptably shoddy lab work and, in 2008, an internal affairs probe uncovered evidence of cheating on lab proficiency tests, resulting in a second closure. 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. A Question of Character Key pieces of evidence left by the killer were passed around by reporters. The case, which earned Kofoed his first and greatest encounter with infamy, revolved around the suspects in a double murder: Nicolas Sampson and Matt Livers. The prosecution expert used "Cacheback" software that had a bug parsing Mork database files. He was sentenced to death and currently sits in prison on death row. 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. A series of arson attacks against forensic laboratories in Brussels has alerted the world to a huge security fail going on in Belgium. His parents were both charged and convicted of murdering Gabriel due to signs of abuse. IDAHO, PETITIONER v. LAURA LEE WRIGHT. At least 18 of those prisoners have been proven innocent through updated DNA testing. He has remained in jail since the spring of 2013. With police performance measured in numbers of arrests, officers who failed to book enough criminals risked such penalties as being removed from undercover assignments. 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. The National Institute of Criminology, considered the most important forensic testing center in Belgium, was also hit by arsonists in 2016. He listed one cause of death as pneumonia, even though a suspect later confessed that hed shot the victim in the head. 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. 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 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. The jurors have to unanimously decide guilt or innocence. The victims were from one jurisdiction, but their bodies were found in another, leading to disagreements about which department should collect the forensic evidence. 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. The DNA traces on the knife, which were discovered by police in Sollecito's kitchen, appeared "unreliable in as much as [they were] not supported by scientifically validated analytic procedures", the experts' report said. Problems with her collection and analysis techniques prompted further scrutiny, revealing that she had been reporting false negatives instead of false positives during chemical tests for semen detection on clothing. Cameron Todd Willingham The murder victim, Raveesh Kumra, was a 66-year-old investor who lived in Monte Sereno, a Silicon Valley enclave 10 miles and many socioeconomic rungs away. Defense attorneys and organizations like the Innocence Project are pushing for standardized use of DNA tests on hair, as well as more accurate testimony about how hair can be similar, but not necessarily matched. Instead of attempting to cover up this hairy forensic fail, the FBI and all legal organizations involved admitted their mistakes and took full responsibility for preventing them in the future. 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 . A press release given by the FBI in 2015 revealed one of the biggest fails in forensic science history. For 14 years, the lab relied on malfunctioning equipment that incorrectly logged all evidence entry dates as January 1, 1970. 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. The integrity of the criminal justice system is intimately intertwined with the belief that we can trust the analysis of crime scene evidence. Both Knox and Sollecito were arrested and charged with Kerchers murder due to trace amounts of Knoxs DNA found on the kitchen knifethe presumed murder weaponand Sollecitos DNA found on Kerchers bra clasp. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 2,030 people have been proven innocent through DNA testing. In 16 cases, pieces of evidence were returned to the wrong rape kit, hindering 19 investigations. And some of the labs forensic data is believed to have been falsified. 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. 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. 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. The multitude of forensic science scholarships available to students is a testament to the viability of this academic profession, demonstrating promise within the field. Wet items were also packaged before allowing them to dry, causing critical changes in evidence. 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. The overwhelming evidence of lab misconduct has already resulted in the dismissal of 200 drug cases and reduced sentences in 60 more. Fingerprint evidence that tied her to gasoline cans used in the arson had been planted by New York State Troopers. While he has not been charged yet, he has been suspended while the authorities investigate these allegations. The jurors agreed that the DNA testimony was difficult to appreciate since expert witnesses were not able to put their evidence in terms that the jury could understand. As a result, the cases against 11 suspected rapists have gone cold, perhaps never to be solved. The defense noted several items that had gone missing, including a vial of blood from OJ Simpson. Failure to secure the scene was just the beginning of this forensic fiasco. Police even used a blanket that came from inside the house to cover Nicole Browns body, contaminating the body and anything surrounding it. The BTK Killer You can't talk about criminal cases and digital forensics without mentioning the infamous BTK killer case. In the aftermath of successful attacks on Belgiums forensic labs, European officials are now concerned about the security of their nuclear sites as well. 4.1 Kimberly Long. The theft proved pointless, however, when police discovered that all of the information on the servers involved old cases that had already been tried in court. Independent experts have seriously disputed much of the scientific evidence relied on in the case. In addition, the US Department of Justice revealed that more than 400,000 stored rape kits have not yet been tested across the country because of insufficient funding. A bloody fingerprint at Nicoles house was noted by a policeman but overlooked by the forensics team. Over her career, Dookhan completed as many as 60,000 analyses, making her partly responsible for an estimated 11,000 criminal convictions. At least 140 people have been released from death row during that time because of forensic evidence which was tainted, flawed, or outright false. With a team of criminals and incompetents running the drug lab, unconscionable misconduct ensued. 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. 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. The first decision to uphold the admission of DNA evidence in s tate appellate court was in 1988; before that, DNA was thought of as too inconclusive.Now c ourts have determined that DNA identification theory, practice, and techniques are widely accepted among the scientific community and therefore valid as . As in the Zhang case, network logs can be analyzed to identify mass movements or deletions of data and other suspect user activity. What happened in the trial of O.J. Manuel Vasquez, a state deputy fire marshall, took the stand and testified to seeing puddle configurations (i.e., areas of rapid burning) suggesting the use of accelerants in the fire and indicating arson. "Even after the state Supreme Court threw out Ralph Armstrong's conviction based on evidence of his innocence, the prosecutor continued to withhold yet more evidence of his innocence." The Innocence Project got involved in Armstrong's case in 1993 and has worked on the case ever since with Wisconsin attorneys Jerome Buting and Keith Belzer. In a scandal that broke on the heels of extensive efforts to reform Philadelphias habitually corrupt police force, the officers of the 39th shocked the conscience of Philadelphia with tales of false arrests, evidence tampering, violence, and even theft. Separate pieces of evidence were bagged together instead of separately, causing cross-contamination. What remained to be a mystery for more than 30 years was finally solved via digital forensics in the early 2000s. This is a broad concept that can range from using excessive force, performing illegal searches, selective law . A card left by the killer was handled by dozens of people in the crowd, making fingerprint forensics useless in court. Second only to Sherlock Holmes and Batman, Scotland Yard is what people associate with excellence in detective work. The role of the jury is to listen to both sides of the case (prosecutor and defense). How many innocent people are serving sentences for crimes they didnt commit? Willie owned a gun of the same caliber as the one that killed the couple, and he had complained to friends at a local pub that Edward was not giving him enough allowance from the family funds. 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. 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. 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. HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The Houston Forensic Science Center says it fired a crime scene investigator after it discovered she violated policy and protocol, affecting two sexual assault cases. 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