NC Report: State Crime Lab Withheld or Overstated Evidence in 230 Cases

oceanblueeyes

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http://www.abajournal.com/news/arti...withheld_or_overstated_evidence_in_230_cases/

The exoneration of a North Carolina man imprisoned 17 years for a murder he didn’t commit has led to a review of the State Bureau of Investigation and some surprising findings: The SBI withheld or overstated blood evidence in 230 cases, 190 of which resulted in criminal charges.

The state had a written policy beginning in 1997 to withhold results of more sophisticated blood tests that would have shown a substance on an SUV driven by exonerated inmate Greg Taylor was not in fact blood, the Raleigh News & Observer reports.

According to the newspaper, the impact of the findings “will reverberate for years to come as prosecutors and defense attorneys re-examine cases as much as two decades old to figure out whether these errors robbed defendants of justice. Some of the injustices can be addressed as attorneys bring old cases back to court. For others, it's too late: Three of the defendants in botched cases have been executed.”:furious:
 
Report may force state to close SBI crime lab-North Carolina

A report revealing State Bureau of Investigation agents overstated blood evidence in dozens of cases could force North Carolina to close its crime lab and change the agency's secretive policies, defense attorneys and a former prosecutor said.

The state-ordered report found agents repeatedly aided prosecutors in obtaining convictions during a 16-year period, mostly by misrepresenting blood evidence and keeping critical notes from defense attorneys.

An agency spokeswoman would not comment on changes under consideration, though Attorney General Roy Cooper has urged the SBI to consider suggestions from people outside the agency.

The SBI operates without public oversight. Its reports are not open to public inspection even after a case is adjudicated unlike other police agencies that must follow the state's public records law.

http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100822/NEWS/308220049
 
Dominos... clink, clink, clink....

GA recently released a SO & immediately another petitioned to get out on the same loophole. Unfortunately he was out in very short order. Others will follow.

Whether it's bad lab work or improper reporting, defense atts in NC will be clocking many extra hours revisiting cases. Too bad. It will be costly. Clink, clink, more dominos falling.
 
Ummm...this is a little scary...I mean we all want the bad guys in jail, but come on, folks. Reminds me of the mess in the Texas crime labs a few years ago...:(
 
A possible consequence of the crime lab errors.......

Michael Peterson impacted by SBI report?

DURHAM (WTVD) -- The scathing report on North Carolina's crime lab that came out Wednesday could give Durham novelist Mike Peterson's murder case a second look.
It is not among the nearly 200 cases called into question, but Peterson's attorneys are already reviewing blood analysis in the death of Peterson's wife in hopes of getting the convicted killer a new trial.
One of the witnesses against Peterson was SBI analyst Duane Deaver. He was taken taken off the job this week after the report found his work among the worst done on scores of flawed criminal cases.

more at http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=7619462
 
Ummm...this is a little scary...I mean we all want the bad guys in jail, but come on, folks. Reminds me of the mess in the Texas crime labs a few years ago...:(

I will never, ever understand how anyone in their right mind would be so eager to convict someone that they'd hide or exaggerate evidence to ensure a guilty verdict.

Don't these idiots know that if you convict someone that way it means the REAL guilty person is still out there? And do they realize that when they conspire to hide evidence or exaggerate evidence, THEY have become a criminal? Do they sleep at night knowing they've sent an innocent person to prison?

Thank God for the Innocence Project and others like them.
 
I will never, ever understand how anyone in their right mind would be so eager to convict someone that they'd hide or exaggerate evidence to ensure a guilty verdict.

Don't these idiots know that if you convict someone that way it means the REAL guilty person is still out there? And do they realize that when they conspire to hide evidence or exaggerate evidence, THEY have become a criminal? Do they sleep at night knowing they've sent an innocent person to prison?

Thank God for the Innocence Project and others like them.

Amen.

I can only imagine, k, but my best guess is that they don't think they are convicting innocent persons, they think they are helping to convict guilty persons who might otherwise get away.

THIS IS NO EXCUSE, obviously. Because the result is they are sometimes, perhaps often, wrong and innocent people are imprisoned and/or executed.

But that's how I think people think.
 
Ummm...this is a little scary...I mean we all want the bad guys in jail, but come on, folks. Reminds me of the mess in the Texas crime labs a few years ago...:(

When I first came to this site many years ago I was blindly pro-prosecution. In my naiveté and always being a law abiding citizen, I trusted the prosecutors, investigators and CSI labs without question. To me at that time I thought they were the "good guys" trying to put the "bad guys" in prison but over the years thank goodness my mind has evolved as I have seen what has happened over and over again.

IMO, the justice system has lost its way. It is no longer about seeing that true justice is served but it is about wins!

No one in this country should have their liberty or life taken away based on botched or tainted evidence. The prosecutors, investigators and labs must be above reproach and the evidence entered in, must be tried and true. It just has to be that way when lives are forever changed when verdicts are handed down.

The most disheartening thing about the NC report is it went on for 16 years. When there are no checks and balances in place this will continue to happen all over this country. All of those involved should have outside reviewers to make sure the states prove their cases beyond a reasonable doubt based on legitimate evidence.

Now I know these devious actions does not apply to all Prosecutors, LE or labs. I have no doubt many are ethical but it only takes some to taint the entire process. The problem I have now is not knowing which ones to really trust.

IMO, trials have become less about facts and more about drama and who can put on the most shock and awe case based on courtroom drama.

IMO
 
Amen.

I can only imagine, k, but my best guess is that they don't think they are convicting innocent persons, they think they are helping to convict guilty persons who might otherwise get away.

THIS IS NO EXCUSE, obviously. Because the result is they are sometimes, perhaps often, wrong and innocent people are imprisoned and/or executed.

But that's how I think people think.

The problem I have with many Prosecutors when they sent someone to prison and even death row, who was later exonerated, the Prosecutors more often than not refuse to admit they were wrong even if the evidence proved they were.

IMO
 
Excellent posts, OBE. It is truly frightening to think that one could be locked up forever or put to death when they are innocent. I have seen this so many times now, that I have become very skeptical of the entire justice system. It seems like it is so easy to get someone wrongly convicted. That is why I am against the death penalty. Other reasons as well, but that is my main one. There have been too many people on death row found to be innocent. Their lives have been ruined. No amount of money can give these people back all the years they spent in hell waiting to be executed for something they didn't do.
 
Amen.

I can only imagine, k, but my best guess is that they don't think they are convicting innocent persons, they think they are helping to convict guilty persons who might otherwise get away.

THIS IS NO EXCUSE, obviously. Because the result is they are sometimes, perhaps often, wrong and innocent people are imprisoned and/or executed.

But that's how I think people think.

I hope you are right! I had not thought of it that way, but your thoughts make sense on so many levels----
 
A possible consequence of the crime lab errors.......

Michael Peterson impacted by SBI report?

DURHAM (WTVD) -- The scathing report on North Carolina's crime lab that came out Wednesday could give Durham novelist Mike Peterson's murder case a second look.
It is not among the nearly 200 cases called into question, but Peterson's attorneys are already reviewing blood analysis in the death of Peterson's wife in hopes of getting the convicted killer a new trial.
One of the witnesses against Peterson was SBI analyst Duane Deaver. He was taken taken off the job this week after the report found his work among the worst done on scores of flawed criminal cases.

more at http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=7619462

See this is what happens when the State and the labs don't play by the rules.
It throws all cases in limbo even the defendants that may be guilty as sin.

I remember that man. Isn't he the one that had all the strings going from one blood spatter to another?

I sincerely hope he really did do his job on the Michael Peterson case.

I seem to recall that this happened awhile back in the FBI labs too and the guy testifying in plenty of trials had doctored the evidence and had shaded his testimony during the trials.

Sheesh what a mess.
 
Ocean, I am so glad that you started this thread because I think this has been a problem in NC for quite some time. I hope that during this investigation perhaps Officer Davina Buff Jones shoes will be found tucked away in the lab. Are you familiar with her case?

<www.officerdavinabuffjones.com>

This was a murder which was ruled a suicide. I read the book about her death and the details regarding the SBI's mishandling (coverup?) is unbelievable! I've thought about starting a thread on her case here as the case is still open on BHI but was closed by Brunswick Co Sheriff dept and DA Rex Gore.

Anyway, here is the latest from AG Cooper on the crime lab investigation.

http://www.wect.com/Global/story.asp?S=13119845

all MOO

wm
 
I had hoped the OJ case had caused this sort of stuff to stop happening.
 
I had hoped the OJ case had caused this sort of stuff to stop happening.

Ditto Spangle! James Jordan's (Michael Jordan's father)case has been removed from the list to be investigated because the FBI guy made a mistake in reading the SBI report. At least he admitted his mistake. I am sure this will cause some raised eyebrows as the 'urban legend' around these parts is that Mr. Jordan is still alive and he had staged his death due to large gambling debts. I know, I know, but we have a friend who is AA and he really believes this to be true. Anywho, here's the latest link........

http://www.wwaytv3.com/james_jordan_murder_case_pulled_sbi_report/09/2010
 

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