Few cases in history have been more focused on forensic evidence than the O.J. At least 140 people have been released from death row during that time because of forensic evidence which was tainted, flawed, or outright false. Second only to Sherlock Holmes and Batman, Scotland Yard is what people associate with excellence in detective work. And, for those eight yearswhich is a long time to get away with any crimethose troopers helped decide thousands of felony cases across more than half a dozen counties across New York. The newer mitochondrial testing of hair is more expensive, but it does exactly match hair to a suspect through DNA. Her shoddy forensic work allowed 200 convicted defendants to be freed from custody while their cases were reviewed by officials.[2]. Wet items were also packaged before allowing them to dry, causing critical changes in evidence. With police performance measured in numbers of arrests, officers who failed to book enough criminals risked such penalties as being removed from undercover assignments. Its worth noting that as of June 2017, the federal government remains committed to keeping current processes in place. For aspiring forensics professionals, these documented abuses of the science are presented as cautionary tales. In 1999, the Ford Heights Four won a $36 million in damages from Cook Countythe largest settlement for a civil rights case in U.S. history. Janssen-Ortho Inc. vs. Novopharm Limited. The claimant, Donoghue, brought a claim for personal injury against the . Gabriel Fernandez, an 8-year-old boy, was found dead with multiple trauma wounds on March 22, 2013. 10 Famous Cases Cracked by Forensics. In addition, O.J. O.C. [5] Bloody shoe prints matching O.J.s size and pattern were found at the scene of the crime, yet no one could locate his shoes to prove that they were an exact match. 10. Somehow, these flashing signs of inability didnt prevent him from landing jobs as a police chemist for the state of West Virginia and chief of physical evidence in Bexar County, Texas. And they werent alone in this scandal. As a private contractor, he performed more than 3,000 autopsies in 41 jurisdictions spread out over West Texas. [10] No one can say for certain how many innocent prisoners have been executed, died in prison, or served time for crimes that they did not commit. On November 2, 2007, American college student Amanda Knox returned to her flat in Perugia, Italy. Erroneous convictions can have immeasurable consequences for exonerees, original crime victims, and families. The judge made some good points and some that made it obvious that they aren't tech savvy but still a good read. A Question of Character Harry Thaw in 1905. In the results-driven world of laboratory work, her virtually inhuman ability to amass test results placed Dookhan in a position of distinction. The athlete's lawyer said some images showed "great. His wife had been out Christmas shopping and despite her insistence that Willingham had never been abusive and had no motive for the crimes, he was arrested. Disorganization was rife, and records were regularly falsified. The next day brought another disturbing discovery: A county road worker found 16-year-old Patricia Kalitzke's body in an area north of Great Falls, the paper reports. Defense attorneys were quick to argue that lax procedures by the forensics team could have led to the degradation or cross-contamination of blood evidence. The expert's affidavit merely referenced to a homepage link and did not specify nor attach any webpage to be presented as exhibits. Wrongfully convicted suspects, grieving family members, and the victims of violent criminals who should have been behind bars all suffer because of this ongoing forensic storage fail. The first edition of Electronic Evidence in Criminal Investigations and Actions: Representative Court Decisions and Supplementary Materials was published in February of 2016. In the months that followed, investigators revealed a pattern of malfeasance and unprofessionalism that would tax and tarnish Delawares criminal proceedings. Over the course of an 11-hour interrogation, local authorities managed to force a false confession from Livers, who is mentally disabled and eventually buckled under the pressure and repeated threats of incarceration. In an article called " 8 Famous Faces Who Were Falsely Accused Of A Crime" has a case of a man named Dewey Bozella, who is a boxer, was accused of murdering a elderly woman in her apartment at the age of 18. No one had bothered to measure it, either, leading to suspicions that some of the blood might have been missing. The first decision to uphold the admission of DNA evidence in s tate appellate court was in 1988; before that, DNA was thought of as too inconclusive.Now c ourts have determined that DNA identification theory, practice, and techniques are widely accepted among the scientific community and therefore valid as . Theyd been stabbed multiple times. 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Coupled with confessions from the murderers and DNA evidence, Williams, Adams, Rainge, and Jimerson were finally exonerated after 17 years in prison. Six out of ten of the nations forensic laboratories have been badly burned by arsonists, with thousands of pieces of evidence ending up lost or damaged. Nearly everyone in the town of New Brunswick, New Jersey, seemed to know that Reverend Edward Wheeler Hall and choir singer Eleanor Reinhardt Mills were in love. Police used forensic evidence found at the scene to track the thieves, which led to their houses. 3 Duke University Lacrosse Team. Changing that initial perception was going to be tough. Camm was charged once againthis time as a co-conspirator with Boney. One can only hope that, in time, his legacy will evolve into one of wrongs righted by a wiser justice system, rather than the virulent injustices he authored. The large server contained vital evidence for multiple criminal cases. Many experts assert that it can be easily compromised, planted, or deleted without a trace. Justice Kennedy, with whom The Chief Justice, Jus tice White and Justice Blackmun join, dissenting. Once the thieves discovered that the information was useless, they had no idea what to do with the server or how to abandon it without arousing suspicion. On September 28, 2000, David Camma retired Indiana State Trooperreturned home to find his wife and two children dead of gunshot wounds. A woman who waited a decade for detectives to charge the man accused of raping her is the second alleged victim pursuing a complaint about Queensland police losing forensic evidence. O.J. California. Marco Raymond Butterfield, 22, was arrested following the robbery and shooting of a 27-year-old man outside a barber shop in northwest Oklahoma City. Two Rome University professors said there was no certainty that traces of DNA, found on a knife allegedly used in the murder, belonged to Kercher. Death row inmates, however, lose more than time. Simpson was accused of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown-Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman on June 12, 1994, between approximately 9:40 p.m. and 10:55 p.m., in the front courtyard of her condominium on Bundy Drive, Brentwood. One of them, Briton Meredith Kercher, was murdered on . In 2014, a group of police officers was apprehended after executing a vicious extortion plot that involved kidnapping, threats, and even holding criminal suspects out of windows. His parents were both charged and convicted of murdering Gabriel due to signs of abuse. On March 27, 2015, both Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were exonerated for the murder of Meredith Kercher. And, in another case of negligence, Callery failed to fire a chemist who had failed required proficiency tests. Supervisors might never have caught the mistakes if not for the fact that the technician in question applied for a new training program. If handled properly, forensics can make or break any trial against dangerous criminals. She was right. Rather, she had been faking test results at a rate of thousands per year. She found the bathroom she shared with her roommate, Meredith Kercher, covered in blood. But they said it could not have been the murder weapon as its profile was inconsistent with the slash wounds on Kercher's throat. The recanted testimony was never reported to Willinghams attorneys and the prosecution ultimately cited the statute of limitations. The victims were from one jurisdiction, but their bodies were found in another, leading to disagreements about which department should collect the forensic evidence. To add to the problem, the blood was not immediately turned over as evidence but was carried around for several hours before it was entered into the chain of custody, allowing for speculation of when and how the 1.5 mL of blood may have disappeared. John Vasquez, who worked in evidence management for 25 years, admitted that during his career, hed seen unlabeled evidence tossed into a closet, a hand grenade stored in a glass jar, boxes of corrosive chemicals leaking onto other boxes of evidence, and forensic samples stored in a clerks office next to employees food and drinks. Since no one could tell which tests were real, which ones were fake, or which ones shed personally contaminated, all of Dookhans results became suspect. As in the Zhang case, network logs can be analyzed to identify mass movements or deletions of data and other suspect user activity. DNA testing then proved that he wasnt a murderer. In 16 cases, pieces of evidence were returned to the wrong rape kit, hindering 19 investigations. For Philadelphia, one of those chapters is undoubtedly devoted to its 39th district police officers. Coworkers at the medical examiners office had to work around the clock double-checking the fired technicians findings. A state forensic analyst claimed that Camms t-shirt had been stained with the wifes blood in patterns suggesting he was the perpetrator. In addition to the untold numbers of people who have been convicted on faulty evidence, a fair number of known violent drug offenders have also been released, leading to an increase in the crime rate and time spent rearresting offenders released because of fabricated evidence. Knox, 23, from the US, and Sollecito, 27, an Italian, are serving sentences of 26 and 25 years respectively for the murder. She served only three years in jail for her crimes and is now free, just like the dangerous Dookhan Defendants she put back on the streets. The two were . Over the course of a 14-year career, Baird was the target of nearly two dozen official complaints related to his propensity for police brutality, inflated criminal charges, robbing drug dealers, and the wholesale planting of narcotic evidence on innocent peoplean impressive list of evils to say the least. Despite setbacks in the advancement of the science, there are groups committed to exonerating falsely accused people with sound forensic evidence. Oscar Pistorius' defence team accused a South African police photographer of mishandling the crime scene during day 12 of his trial in Pretoria. Not only did several key witnesses against Mrs. Hall disappear forever, but forensic evidence did as well. Fred Zains academic record does not reveal the makings of a person fit to wield a beaker, let alone work in a forensics lab. The government has since identified nearly 3,000 cases for review, based on questionable hair analysis testimony.[8]. But, for residents of Douglas County, Nebraska, those three letters could just as easily stand for Criminal Subterfuge in Investigations thanks to disgraced David Kofoed, whose tenure as chief of the local CSI division was marred by the willful manipulation of DNA evidence in a series of murder cases. In another instance, a former employee had managed to hold onto an evidence locker pass key six years after leaving the job. William A. Todd Spitzer has dropped or reduced charges in 67 criminal cases as a result of. With the rate of laboratory malfeasance far outpacing the capacity of authorities to address it, we may never fully ascertain just how many lives were ruined or potentially lost thanks to the Houston Police Departments forensic infractions. "The international procedures for the inspection [of the scene of a crime] were not followed," Stefano Conti and Carla Vecciotti, both professors, said in their report. The detectives who took over Fuhrmans shift apparently were never aware of the print and eventually, it was lost or destroyed without ever being collected. According to the Innocence Project, out of 329 wrongful convictions overturned by new DNA testing, 74 were due to erroneous microscopic hair evidence. Individuals like 54-year-old Betty Patterson spent three years in prison on false charges of selling cocaine thanks to planted evidence. At the trial, James Grigsona psychiatrist known as Doctor Death for frequently recommending the death penalty for defendantswas called as an expert witness. She could pass through borders with no apparent problems and was linked crimes in at least three countries. However, the prosecutors were able to get their hands on 88,000 e-mails and other messages on Michelle's . Conspiracy theorists helped spread the rumor that a racist cop had killed both Nicole and Ron to frame O.J. Key points: Kelly says she was told police no longer have forensic evidence from her rape kit Investigators exhumed seven bodies that Erdmann had testified about. The integrity of the criminal justice system is intimately intertwined with the belief that we can trust the analysis of crime scene evidence. But, after spending two and a half years of a 17- to 44-year sentence behind bars for burglary and arson, Shirley Kinge was released. In fact, she didnt even have the masters degree she claimed to have earned. 4.2 Suzanne Johnson. For example, the Innocence Project aims to free the staggering number of innocent people who remain incarcerated, and to bring reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment. Founded in 1992 by Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck, it has helped to free 350 people on DNA evidence and identified 149 alternative perpetrators as of June 2017. To better understand the tragic rippling effect of the lost evidence in this case, keep reading. Although serial killer Ted Bundy was responsible for an estimated 30-plus murders, there was little physical evidence to connect him to the crimes when he was arrested in 1975. Nov. 22, 2019. Michelle Theer (2000): On December 17 th, 2000, John Diamond shot and killed Air Force Captain Marty Theer. She then compounded the problem by testifying about her findings during criminal trials. Securing the Evidence In short, forensic science depends not only on types of evidence with foundational and applied validity, but also on the dedicated efforts of ethics-minded groups such as the Innocence Project. Advocates from the Innocence Project are now working with the Department of Justice to develop a set of evidence storage guidelines that will hopefully be standardized across the nation in the future.[6]. In 2002, the facility was closed due to unacceptably shoddy lab work and, in 2008, an internal affairs probe uncovered evidence of cheating on lab proficiency tests, resulting in a second closure. There was about 1.5 mL of O.J. In 2008, Brooklyn cops were caught siphoning off drugs confiscated in arrests which, for many observers, would constitute a textbook case of crooked policing. A Question of Planted Evidence The millionaire who gunned down the high-society architect. On December 23, 1991, a fire ravaged Cameron Todd Willinghams house killing his two-year-old daughter and one-year-old twins, while Willingham escaped with minor burns. At the heart of the scandal were five forensic investigators from Troop C. According to investigators, these individuals benefited from a culture of lax, and even tacitly complicit, oversight that nurtured a felonious hubris. While interviewing with the CIA, Harding touted his evidence planting exploits as an example of his ability to conduct covert operations, somehow failing to comprehend that admitting to a string of serious crimes might get him in trouble with the government. A suspects laptop and cell phone can show evidence of a crime, motivation, or premeditation. A lawmans brother was later caught trying to sell some of the documents to reporters. The retribution was prompt and costly. In a shocking double fail, thieves in Kent, England, had very little trouble stealing a computer server from Forensics Telecommunications Services in 2007. But, in at least one other instance, he failed to submit marijuana and guns seized during a crime, and there is some cause to believe that he may have been involved in the displacement of $130,000 confiscated during an FBI search. The potential breakthrough for Knox and Sollecito came just two days after their case suffered a hefty setback. Those struggling used the extra drugs to frame innocent people. And, from what is known, its clear that Zains dissembling reach was tremendous. An internal investigation conducted two years ago by the Orange County Sheriff's Department, the findings of which were not made public at the time, uncovered systematic mishandling of evidence . The Austin Police Department, for example, stores at least 600,000 items, with approximately 60,000 new pieces of evidence being processed each year. Unfortunately, Dookhan wasnt some laboratory wunderkind with a passion for drug offenses. Criminal charges and convictions have been dropped against 67 people because of evidence mishandling at the Orange County Sheriff's Department, prosecutors revealed Wednesday. The Zhang case demonstrates that the availability of network data presents opportunities to investigate user activity in non-cyber cases, (i.e., a theft of trade secrets matter). The victim's sweater was found neatly folded by the truck. H.E. Cases involving computer forensics that made the news. A civil court awarded the plaintiffs a total of $6.5 milliona gesture which is more symbolic than practical in light of Kofoeds inability to pay the fine. Over a span of 13 years, prosecutors in two states sought out Zains ostensibly expert opinions, never questioning the fact that he managed to produce evidence with a certainty that other lab technicians couldnt approach. He listed one cause of death as pneumonia, even though a suspect later confessed that hed shot the victim in the head. Vendors camped at the site, selling balloons and soft drinks to the hundreds of visitors trampling around the crime scene. Perhaps the most famous instance of forensic evidence in Australia, before the advent of DNA, followed the abduction on 7 July 1960 in Sydney of the 8-year-old son of Mr and Mrs Thorne, Graham. When asked if he had falsified police reports or planted evidence in the Simpson case, he invoked his 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination. When detectives arrived at OJ Simpsons home to inform him of the death of his ex-wife, they noticed blood on Simpsons white Ford Bronco. Separate pieces of evidence were bagged together instead of separately, causing cross-contamination. Fingerprint evidence that tied her to gasoline cans used in the arson had been planted by New York State Troopers. But, despite even the presence of eyewitnesses who could attest to grotesque law enforcement misconduct, charges leveled against Baird and other officers were consistently dismissed as baseless until Philadelphia investigators and federal agents finally began pursuing the matter in 1991. How many innocent people are serving sentences for crimes they didnt commit? But thats only the beginning. Boney ultimately claimed it was Camm who murdered the family. It will depend on the judge and whether the mishandled components are enough to throw out the case. But, in truth, the lab had been plagued by corruption long before those thefts ever occurred. Additionally, a Dutch forensic expert found Boneys DNA under Kim Camms fingernails and her DNA on his sweatshirt, two pieces of evidence which sealed his conviction. Going in, the public were already influenced by Simpsons likeability and star power as a pro football player and beloved celebrity. All we do know is that forensic fails can be deadly. 6. 9. From the beginning, there were issues involving evidence collection. To buttress law enforcement accusations, Kofoed planted traces of blood which tied the suspects to the murder scene, ultimately securing a guilty verdict in court. In the absence of good faith efforts to prove a suspects guilt or innocence, the societal dominoes that build our criminal justice system collapse into a tragic heap. Erdmann later admitted that he had thrown the head away. A final eyewitness named Marvin Simpson came forward five days after the murders identifying four completely different men as the killers, but the police failed to investigate these claims. One of the examiners most aggravating mistakes was the loss of an entire head, which contained a bullet from the killers gun. The prosecution expert used "Cacheback" software that had a bug parsing Mork database files. Filomena Romanelli, the third roommate, returned home following a phone conversation with Knox. Cases Where Digital Evidence Was Not Accepted. The following are ten cases where shocking forensic fails bungled the case and allowed murderers to walk away from justiceor sent innocent people to prison. He spent 26 years in jail before a group called The . In reality, not all blood spatter can be seen with the naked eye. The Thornes had just been named as the winners of the Opera House lottery, established to raise money to build Joern Utzon's masterpiece. This put anything he touched in the investigation under scrutiny. Furthermore, Johnny Webb, a jailhouse informant, testified against Willingham claiming he had confessed to the arson leading to the murders. Photos were taken of critical evidence without scales in them to aid in measurement taking. Beyond poor evidence collection techniques, sloppy maneuvering at the scene caused more bloody shoe prints to be left behind by LAPD than by the perpetrator. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. While a police power struggle ensued, reporters flocked to the site of the murder to take pictures, and civilians soon followed. And a big part of the problem could be pinned on the man running the show: Chief Medical Examiner Richard Callery. 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