Reasonable Doubt
Can
Crime Labs be Trusted?
A joint investigation by CNN and the Center
for Investigative Reporting examines the lack of standards, quality
controls and training at many of the nation's forensic laboratories and
raises serious doubts about some forensic scientists.
Key Cases
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Riky Jackson
Riky Jackson was convicted in 1997 of murdering a friend, Alvin Davis,
based on bloody fingerprints found at the crime scene that police in
Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, said matched Jackson's
fingerprints. Jackson's attorney, Mike Malloy, hired two former FBI
fingerprint examiners who determined the prints were not Jackson's, but
three prosecution examiners testified that the fingerprints matched.
Jackson was sentenced to life without parole. Upset by the verdict, the
examiners hired by Malloy sent the prints to be reviewed by a group
that accredits fingerprint examiners, which found the prints didn't
match. A year after the conviction, the fingerprint evidence was sent
to the FBI, which found the prints didn't match, and Jackson was freed
after more than two years in prison.
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Jimmy Ray Bromgard
Jimmy Ray Bromgard spent 15 years in prison after he
was wrongfully convicted of raping an 8-year-old girl. Bromgard was
convicted in large part because of the testimony of Arnold Melnikoff,
former manager of the Montana's state crime lab. In 2000, Bromgard
contacted The Innocence Project, which handles cases where DNA testing
of evidence can yield conclusive proof of innocence of people already
convicted of a crime. A judge approved a motion filed by lawyers with
the Innocence Project requesting new DNA tests, which exonerated
Bromgard.
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Josiah Sutton
Josiah Sutton spent four and a half years in prison after he was
wrongly convicted of rape in 1998 based on bad DNA evidence from the
Houston Police Department's crime lab. The lab's DNA unit has since
been shut down and the Harris County District Attorney's office is
reviewing almost 400 cases involving DNA evidence.
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Brandon Mayfield
The FBI arrested Brandon Mayfield based on their certainty that his
fingerprints matched the ones on a bag containing detonators and
explosives found near the Madrid train bombings that killed nearly 200
people. Mayfield insisted he was innocent, but in an affidavit, an FBI
agent said "the FBI lab stands by their conclusion of a 100 percent
positive identification." Spanish officials disagreed with the FBI and
matched the print to an Algerian national living in Spain. Mayfield was
released after spending two weeks in prison.
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Anthony Michael Green
Anthony Michael Green was convicted in 1988 of raping a patient at the
Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Joseph Serowik, a lab technician for the
Cleveland Police Department Forensic Laboratory, testified that hair
and biological analysis pointed to Green as the assailant. Green,
however, maintained that he was innocent and contacted the Innocence
Project in 1997 for help. DNA tests in 2001 proved Green's innocence
and he was freed. In 2004, Green settled a lawsuit against the city of
Cleveland in which he received $1.6 million in compensation, but the
city also agreed to bring in a special master to review 100 cases that
involved Serowik's testimony or work.
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Glen Dale Woodall
Glen Dale Woodall was convicted in 1987 of raping two women in West
Virginia. DNA testing was still in its infancy, and though the defense
requested it, DNA tests were not conducted before the trial. After
spending five years in prison, Woodall was freed based on DNA testing
that proved his innocence. Woodall was the first person to be
exonerated after being convicted in a trial that included testimony
from Fred Zain, a former chemist at the West Virginia state crime lab
whose entire body of work has been declared invalid by the state's
Supreme Court.
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