FBI "analysis" is performance artists for the prosecution
April 23, 2015 8:02 PM   Subscribe

The FBI faked an entire field of forensic science. The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000, reports the Washington Post. In more than 95% of cases reviewed, FBI "experts" created facts to assist the prosecution. Those cases include 32 defendants sentenced to death. Of those, 14 have already been executed.

This problem doesn’t stop with the FBI labs or federal prosecutions. The review focuses on the first few hundred cases, involving FBI examiners, but the same mistakes and faulty testimony were likely presented in any state prosecutions that relied on the between 500 and 1,000 local or state examiners trained by the FBI. Some states will automatically conduct reviews. Others may not. Much of the evidence is now lost.

Slate also has a good long-form article and links.
posted by dejah420 (5 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Double. -- restless_nomad



 
Double.
posted by jedicus at 8:03 PM on April 23, 2015


But it gets soooooo good.
posted by clavdivs at 8:08 PM on April 23, 2015


I'll spot that the first about flawed hair analysis and all post is one aspect, FBI training locals another.

The flaw on down theory.
posted by clavdivs at 8:11 PM on April 23, 2015


Huh, weird, it didn't catch the double, and it didn't come up in a search. I'll ping a mod to have this one removed.
posted by dejah420 at 8:18 PM on April 23, 2015


Scoff. Next you'll be saying polygraphs are bullshit.
posted by ctmf at 8:18 PM on April 23, 2015


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