This month, the Department of Justice ordered the continuation of a massive reinvestigation of thousands of criminal cases from the 1980s and 1990s that most likely include flawed forensic testimony from an FBI unit.
The FBI post-conviction review started in 2012, as news began to surface of past erroneous forensic work by the bureau involving flawed microscopic hair matches, which may have led to the wrongful convictions of innocent people. According to federal officials, the FBI had reviewed about 160 cases of over 2,000 convictions and 45 death-row cases before it halted the investigation last August. The delay resulted, in part, “from a vigorous debate that occurred within the FBI and DOJ about the appropriate scientific standards we should apply when reviewing FBI lab examiner testimony—many years after the fact,” as reported by the FBI. However, Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole ordered this month that the reviews continue under the original terms.
The federal review could allow defendants to challenge old evidence in flawed cases using new DNA testing.
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