Government run Crime Labs are never wrong

On June 17, 2010, in Analysis, Ethics, In The Courtroom, by Justin J. McShane

It never hap­pens, right?  Crime labs can­not be wrong.  There is no need to be pro­fes­sion­ally sci­en­tif­i­cally skep­ti­cal as to the reported test results of a crime lab, right?  We should always trust the gov­ern­ment because, after all, they’re here to do good, right?  Right?  WRONG!

I'm from the government, I am here to help

I’m from the gov­ern­ment, I am here to help

As my great friend and Min­nesota crim­i­nal trial attor­ney Chuck Ram­say recently reported in his blog (Min­nesota DWI Defense Blog):

Major crime labs around the coun­try have been exposed for unscrupu­lous behav­ior, result­ing in erro­neous, untrust­wor­thy foren­sic test­ing. For exam­ple (blogger’s note:  these are just the more recent ones.  There are many many examples):

  • In Wash­ing­ton, a judge found “eth­i­cal lapses, sys­temic inac­cu­racy, neg­li­gence and vio­la­tions of sci­en­tific prin­ci­ples” in the state’s crime lab and threw out hun­dreds of breath tests.
  • The mayor com­pletely shut down the Detroit crime lab after volu­mi­nous errors were discovered.
  • The Hous­ton crime lab has had numer­ous failures.
  • Col­orado Springs metro crime lab’s blood alco­hol results were just plain wrong.
  • San Francisco’s crime lab is in the midst of a scan­dal which jeop­ar­dizes “thou­sands of cases.”
  • Tes­ti­mony of Key Wit­ness Calls Mur­der Con­vic­tion into Ques­tion where a state sci­en­tist, in fact the State’s Chief Tox­i­col­o­gist, who pro­vided the cru­cial evi­dence cited by the jury in the con­vic­tion lied about his cre­den­tials and his tech­ni­cal back­ground while on the stand under oath hun­dreds of times.
  • 2 Ex-FBI Offi­cials to Probe North Car­olina Lab Prac­tices after Greg Tay­lor, who served more than 16 years in prison for a mur­der that he did not do and was exon­er­ated due to bad foren­sic sci­ence prac­tices. State Bureau of Inves­ti­ga­tion Agent Duane Deaver pro­vided false tes­ti­mony that blood was human blood when he had in fact per­formed tests that he know proved the blood found was not human blood.
  • Ex-CSI chief gets prison for evi­dence tampering
  • DA:  Erie Foren­sic Nurse’s Find­ings Called into Question
  • And the list goes on and on and on of bad foren­sic sci­ence from the government

    • I am not say­ing that all foren­sic sci­ence is bad or that all foren­sic sci­ence tech­ni­cians are incom­pe­tent boobs or under-trained buf­foons or are even dis­hon­est.  I am advo­cat­ing is that the good guys and the bad guys in foren­sic sci­ence do not come with labels.  As such, we need to be skep­ti­cal and not auto­mat­i­cally accept every­thing that comes from the Government.

     
    About the author

    Justin J. McShane

    Harrisburg DUI attorney Justin J. McShane is the President/CEO of The McShane Firm, LLC - Pennsylvania's top criminal law and DUI law firm. He is the highest rated DUI attorney in PA as rated by Avvo.com. Justin McShane is a double Board certified attorney. He is the first and so far the only Pennsylvania attorney to achieve American Bar Association recognized board certification in DUI defense from the National College for DUI Defense, Inc. He is also a Board Certified Criminal Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy, a Pennsylvania Supreme Court Approved Agency. Justin McShane is the first and so far the only Pennsylvania attorney to achieve American Bar Association recognized board certification in DUI defense from the National College for DUI Defense, Inc.

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