Crime Lab Scandals: Lying Crime Lab Employees Lead To Wrongful Convictions, Public Officials' Shrugs
Innocent people are being convicted, reports Radley Balko in the WaPo, due to lying or shoddy or wrong work of crime lab analysts. And then, when the evidence is found to be wrong, or bad, or a lie:
...prosecutors have no special duty to notify defendants that their convictions might have been obtained with evidence that was falsified by government employees.
That's a remark about one particular lab, but as Balko notes:
Read that line a few times. Let it sink in. This is consistent with other crime lab scandals across the country.Back in the Oklahoma story, Bender lamented that those defense attorneys from New York were implicating not just Cox, but also hard-working cops and prosecutors -- that they were "trying to trash the names and careers of professionals who have given to our community for years." But really. What sort of public servant sees no ethical obligation to even notify potentially innocent people that the conviction that sent them to prison and ruined their lives was won with falsified evidence, and that they could now try to clear their names? Scratch that. I guess we know what sort of public official -- a prosecutor.
But even if there is no professional obligation, there's certainly a moral one.
Day after day, I see story after story about police or the courts that does not reflect the America we're supposed to be living in.
Somewhat in the defense of the prosecutors (I know; I can't believe I'm saying that either), there's a swim-lane problem here. Prosecutors aren't lab techs; they may not be competent to determine whether they are getting proper results or not. There is, however, an inherent problem with the whole setup: labs are judged based on how many convictions they contribute to, so there is a built-in bias.
The solution is to eliminate government-run crime labs. Instead, put out solicitations for industry to do the job, and for the labs to be open to doing work for both prosecutors and defense attorneys. Set up a double-blind system, so that when the lab runs a specimen, they don't know which side they are working for. The bigger hospitals and medical-lab companies already have the capabilities to do a lot of the work, and they would jump on the chance to bid for the business.
Cousin Dave at November 4, 2015 6:54 AM
That would really help CD. And I don't see any reason they can't support all the evidentiary standards.
Ben at November 4, 2015 8:34 AM
Yeah, they pretty much do that already. They have to, for liabillity reasons and to maintain quality.
Cousin Dave at November 4, 2015 9:47 AM
Moral obligations for prosecutors? You mean like the one Mike Nifong had? Like the one the Duke 88 had? I'm still laughing.The people who want to be in charge are often the last people who should be in charge. Cousin Dave's solution would be a start. Perhaps a mandatory five year minimum for evidence tampering, including withholding of exculpatory evidence would be another.
MarkD at November 4, 2015 9:47 AM
I'm all for eliminating prosecutors' immunity, or at least sharply limiting it. There is absolutely no reason why a prosecutor who knows of exculpatory information, and doesn't disclose it to the defense, shouldn't face the full wrath of the law. Otherwise, rules of evidence and the Constitutional standard to prove beyond a reasonable doubt becomes a joke.
However, if the lab is "merely" incompetent, the prosecutors won't necessarily be aware of that. Someone has to ride herd, and asking prosecutors to do it creates a conflict of interest. The judidiciary, or some sort of public watchdog, should be given some powers to conduct their own investigations into the operations of crime labs, as well as other aspects of prosecutorial procedure and evidence handling. This entity, whatever it is, would need to be given some authority to subpoena, and some funding to hire independent experts.
Cousin Dave at November 4, 2015 12:44 PM
It's okay. Only poor people who can't afford to fight it are affected, and they simply don't matter.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at November 4, 2015 2:45 PM
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