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Massachusetts, Michigan and Louisiana take aim at crime lab problems
Posted: July 31, 2007 2:35 pm
An editorial in yesterday’s Patriot Ledger calls on Massachusetts officials to focus on rectifying longstanding problems in the state crime lab in order to ensure fair justice for all. The paper says "this mess will be doubly hard to clean up"
"‘It’s not just about convictions," Essex District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett said, a point the State Police should remember. It’s about determining the truth. That’s going to take time and money, but it must be done.Changes in the state’s forensic community were announced last week, when officials named a senior Boston prosecutor to be the new head of both the State Police crime lab and the medical examiner’s office. The former director resigned last month amid controversy over DNA testing. Read more here.
Read the full editorial here. (Patriot Ledger, 07/30/07)
Meanwhile, Michigan lawmakers are considering a unique plan to fund crime labs and Louisiana labs have used federal grants to nearly eliminate the backlog in sexual assault cases.
- Pending legislation in Michigan would add a surcharge of $1.35 to all phone bills, raising about $200 million. Some of these funds could go to state forensic labs. Read the full article. (ABC 12)
- Louisiana’s crime lab backlog in sexual assault cases has been reduced from 3,100 unprocessed sexual assualt evidence kits in 2003 to 200 kits, according to an article in the Baton Rouge Advocate.
Read our recent blog posts on crime lab oversight and backlogs.
Tags: Crime Lab Backlogs
Lab backlogs continue to slow investigations
Posted: October 5, 2007 1:38 pm
Police departments nationwide are suffering the repercussions of backlogs and slowdowns in crime labs, due to the overwhelming number of samples being submitted for testing, growth in state databases (which requires testing and storing more samples) and the costs of conducting complicated forensic tests. Delays in DNA testing can cause leads in investigations to go cold, can keep innocent people incarcerated longer than necessary and can lead to forensic error.
Officials in Wyoming have begun to outsource DNA tests to private labs, finding the labs can get testing done more quickly. But the backlog hasn’t been erased. Dan Zivkovich, police chief in Jackson, Wyoming, said that the net effect of lab delays “does have an impact. Not only does it affect solving; it also affects what direction you go in eliminating or including suspects.”
Read the full story here. (Casper Tribune, 10/01/07)
Meanwhile, other jurisdictions are experimenting with plans to increase their labs’ capabilities. North Carolina, Colorado and California have all developed crime lab expansion plans that aim to drastically reduce backlogs and expand the nature of DNA testing.
• North Carolina completed construction this month on an expanded crime lab. This expansion effort aims to reduce the severe backlog in North Carolina labs, which included thousands of rape cases. With a larger staff and improved technology, the lab is now able to take every rape case submitted. Read more.
• The Denver police crime lab will undergo a $40 million expansion project to improve its facilities. The lab currently faces severe space shortages and unsafe working conditions, according to an article in The Rocky Mountain News.
• The San Diego County Sherriff’s Department is responding to the ever-increasing demand for DNA testing by creating a new rapid response DNA team. This team, set to begin work in January 2008, will allow San Diego to expand its use of DNA testing from homicides and sexual assaults to other crimes including burglaries and auto theft. Read the article here.
Tags: Crime Lab Backlogs
States expand crime labs to meet rising demand and reduce backlogs
Posted: October 24, 2007 5:01 pm
As crime labs across the country continue to suffer from enormous backlogs and the costs of conducting expensive forensic analysis, states are responding by attempting to increase their capabilities. Missouri and Texas have proposed crime lab expansion plans aimed at improving facilities and increasing the number of trained staff members.
Backlogs of forensic evidence can slow the legal system and lead to forensic errors or misconduct. Read more about the Innocence Project’s recommendations for crime lab oversight here.
Voters in Texas will determine this month whether to drastically expand crime lab capabilities in the state. If passed, the measure on the November 6 ballot would allow several state agencies to take out a total of $1 billion in bonds for crime lab maintenance and construction, including $7 million for a new crime lab in El Paso. Read more here.
The Springfield, Missouri, crime lab will undergo a nearly $600,000 expansion project next year. Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt announced earlier this month that he is recommending the budget increase in order to train new staff members and reduce the burden on other state crime labs. Springfield’s lab could increase forensic analysis capacity by as much as 30 percent, according to an article in the Springfield News-Leader.
Read previous blog posts about crime lab backlogs and reforms nationwide.
Tags: Crime Lab Backlogs
Openings and closings: Fair justice relies on effective crime labs
Posted: November 15, 2007 12:55 pm
With two Michigan crime labs set to close in 2008 due to insufficient funding, law enforcement officials said recently that cutting back on forensic testing will have a drastic impact on the state’s ability to identify and prosecute criminals. “That’s a longer time they will be out there doing crime,” Delta County Undersheriff Ed Oswald said. “It’s not good for Michigan.”
And every time a state cuts funding for crime labs, the chance of forensic error is increased. Overburdened and understaffed labs are less able to store, retrieve and test evidence in a reliable, efficient manner. With growing demands from state DNA databases and law enforcement agencies, many labs, like those in Michigan, are stretched to the breaking point.
In Wisconsin, a murder prosecution has been held up for months while forensic testing drags on at a private lab, which was employed to avoid backlogs at state labs. Three Minnesota counties have asked the state legislature for three consecutive years to fund a new crime lab, because backlogs at the state lab have delayed investigations in the county.
Texas voters last week passed an amendment to the state constitution which allowed several state agencies to fund new projects, including a new crime lab in El Paso and increased funding for labs elsewhere in the state. Several observers of the state’s criminal justice system, however, opposed the bill because it also funds the construction of three new prisons and a new juvenile facility. Read more on the Grits for Breakfast blog.
Read more about crime lab closures in Michigan, Wisconsin lab backlogs, a new lab in El Paso and hiring in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to reduce the crime lab backlog.
Read previous blog posts on crime lab backlogs.
Tags: New Mexico, Michigan, Wisconsin, Crime Lab Backlogs
Friday news roundup
Posted: June 27, 2008 4:16 pm
Below are the stories on criminal justice reform, wrongful convictions and forensic science that we didn’t get to on the blog this week:
Crime lab reform, investigations and funding were in the news this week. The Houston Police Department Crime Lab resumed DNA testing after a six month suspension due to discovery of misconduct. A new Michigan State Police budget set aside $1 million for crime labs to ease backlogs across the state, outsourcing to private labs has helped Florida’s state lab cut its backlog in half since 2005, and a Wisconsin state lab has added two dozen analysts and tripled its space to decrease backlogs.
The U.S. Supreme Court had a busy week on criminal justice issues, issuing a decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana overturning state laws that allow the death penalty for child rape, and in Indiana V. Edwards, in which the justices decided 7-2 that mentally ill inmates can be denied the right to represent themselves at trial.
An Indiana judge denied DNA testing access to Roosevelt Glenn, who has been in prison for nearly two decades for a rape he says he didn’t commit. Glenn is represented by the attorneys at the Indiana University School of Law’s wrongful conviction clinic.
South Carolina legislators approved a bill to allow prisoners claiming innocence to seek DNA testing through the courts. The bill will now go to the governor – who could sign it into law or veto it. If the bill becomes a law, South Carolina will be the 44th state with a DNA access statute.
Tags: Crime Lab Backlogs
Friday roundup
Posted: July 11, 2008 4:18 pm
There’s so much news each week on wrongful convictions and forensic science that we can’t cover it all. Here’s a roundup of news you might have missed:
The ripples are still being felt from the Brewer and Brooks exonerations in Mississippi. An editorial in today’s Hattiesburg American says a new task force in Mississippi “has a lot on its plate” in a state without standards for evidence collection and testing. On Monday, an editorial in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger said “the inadequacy of Mississippi's ‘CSI’ would make a sad, and scary, episode if it were presented on television.”
Earlier this year, Innocence Project clients Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks were exonerated after serving 15 years in prison for nearly identical child murders they didn’t commit. Brewer was on death row for most of those 15 years and he could have been executed. But DNA testing in Brewer’s case proved his innocence and pointed to the real perpetrator, who confessed to committing the crime for which Brooks was serving as well.
Stories about crime labs were clogging the news this week, while evidence backlogs were clogging the labs. A report from the Urban Institute found that DNA has become more effective than fingerprints and witnesses in solving burglaries and other property crimes. The problem is that if this expanded use of DNA testing becomes the national norm, our crime labs will be overwhelmed. Arkansas has increased funding for its state lab to cut the backlog from 15,000 cases to 2,500 cases. And an Omaha crime lab is tightening security after alleged mishandling set off a scandal.
We keep hearing at the Innocence Project about students and teachers using the resources from our “947 Years” website to build lesson plans and class presentations about wrongful convictions and forensic science. But as DNA testing becomes more prevalent in criminal cases, who is teaching our nation’s judges about advances in forensic science? The answer: UNC professor James P. Evans. Find out what he’s telling judges across the country and why he says judges are afraid of science.
Tags: Kennedy Brewer, Crime Lab Backlogs
Friday roundup – crime labs in the news
Posted: August 29, 2008 3:26 pm
Plenty of forensic issues are making news around the country this week.
• The longtime director of the Baltimore crime lab was fired this week after officials learned that crime scene evidence had been contaminated with the DNA profiles of lab analysts. Defense attorneys and forensic experts said this news could call thousands of cases that had been tested in the lab into question.
• Prosecutors and Sheriffs in South Georgia said the proposed closure of two crime labs would hurt both crime victims and defendants. Meanwhile, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is eliminating its staff forensic anthropologist.
• Officials planned to destroy piles of evidence from a Texas courthouse in September unless defense attorneys or prosecutors claimed the evidence and stored it themselves.
• Arizona lawmakers expressed concern this week that a proposal to require police departments to pay lab costs would strain law enforcement budgets and underfund the labs.
• Indianapolis lab analysts are experimenting with DNA collection from guns.
• A California state crime lab was criticized for losing evidence in a murder case.
Tags: Crime Lab Backlogs
Report reveals forensic flaws in LA labs
Posted: October 22, 2008 4:10 pm
Reports over the last week have revealed problems with DNA testing and fingerprinting in the Los Angeles Police Department crime lab. An investigation into the department’s fingerprint unit has revealed that faulty analysis led to the arrests of at least two innocent people, and the extent of the problems is still unclear. Another audit found a backlog of 7,000 untested rape kits in the lab. LA Times columnist Tim Rutten wrote that the city has compromised its justice system by failing to fund badly needed forensic improvements:
Public safety begins with justice, and the LAPD's continuing inability to guarantee the integrity of its scientific evidence fundamentally undermines the criminal justice system. That's clear, but the problem won't be resolved until the department makes correcting this failure a high priority and the council realizes that, in the 21st century, it's just as important to put white coats in the crime labs as it is to put blue shirts on the street.And read Rutten’s column today about the rape kit backlog here. (10/22/08)
Read the full column here. (LA Times, 10/18/08)
Tags: California, Crime Lab Backlogs
Lab Backlogs Continue to Pile Up
Posted: January 29, 2009 3:38 pm
Many crime labs around the United States are suffering under substantial backlogs, and the budget crises in most states aren’t making things any better. While the federal stimulus package approved by the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday included $4 billion to support state and local law enforcement, it is unclear how much of that money will make its way to forensic labs.
Backlogs hinder law enforcement agencies in investigating crime and they can lead to testing errors and problems with evidence storage and preservation. Here are some of the issues facing labs today around the country:
Minneapolis officials, facing a budget shortfall, said recently they may cut crime lab funding.
A review of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Crime Lab has revealed that evidence in more than 800 unsolved rape and sexual assault cases has gone untested due to a massive backlog there. Testing evidence quickly is important because it can help investigators identify a suspect – and can help avoid wrongful accusation and conviction of the innocent.
Earlier this year, the Arizona State Crime Lab began charging local jurisdictions to conduct DNA testing in criminal investigations, and at least one city has begun to challenge the fees.
The Wisconsin Attorney General called the state’s backlog “monstrous” and said eliminating the lag would take existing analysts 20 months.
Tags: Forensic Oversight, Crime Lab Backlogs
Shrinking State Budgets and Crime Labs
Posted: July 14, 2009 5:46 pm
As states face budget shortfalls this year, crime labs across the country are feeling the pinch. Cutbacks in lab budgets can lead to layoffs and longer backlogs for DNA testing and other forensic work, and it can compromise case investigations. In some cases, critical forensic testing could be skipped in a case because there aren’t funds to conduct the tests.
The California legislature has proposed cutting the state’s crime lab budget in half, and the Daily Breeze newspaper recently said this will lead to "a less safe state.” The state crime lab may start charging local agencies to conduct forensic tests on evidence collected from crime scenes, and if those agencies don’t have the money for the tests they might not get done.
Federal funds will soon help the Los Angeles Police Department and the L.A. County Sheriff’s Office address backlogs of untested rape kits that compromise public safety – and could potentially lead to overturning wrongful convictions. The Pasadena Star-News wrote this week that money spent on addressing crime lab backlogs is a “wise investment.”
Medical examiners offices around the country are cutting back on autopsy schedules due to budget shortfalls and some critics say the cuts could hamper investigations.
A new law in Mississippi requires that evidence from some crimes be stored, and some local law enforcement agencies are saying they don’t have the capacity to store crime scene evidence and comply with the law. Evidence preservation is vital to overturning wrongful convictions – and locating the real perpetrators of crimes.
Tags: Forensic Oversight, Crime Lab Backlogs
Lab Backlogs and Untested Evidence
Posted: November 17, 2009 5:18 pm
Last week, a U.S. Senate committee examined the effectiveness of a 2004 law in supporting crime labs across the country. Experts testified that while some progress has been made, significant hurdles remain to helping the nation’s forensic system function more effectively.
One goal of the federal 2004 Innocence Protection Act was to provide funding to allow crime labs to conduct post-conviction DNA tests that can exonerate the innocent and to reduce backlogs of untested evidence. When evidence from cold and unsolved cases goes without testing, perpetrators of crime sometimes manage to avoid capture.
Pat Lykos, the district attorney for Harris County, Texas (which includes Houston), testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Houston Police Department Crime Lab has more than 5,000 untested rape kits in its backlog.
"Felons go undetected and undeterred because reliable forensic capabilities are either scarce or unavailable to the criminal justice system," Lykos said.And this problem doesn’t only affect Houston. A report published by CBS News last week found thousands of rape kits untested in jurisdictions across the country. Fourteen percent of open murder cases and 18 percent of open rape cases have forensic evidence that has not been sent to crime labs for testing, according to a report prepared for the U.S. Office of Justice Programs.
Proposed improvements to the 2004 law would increase the number of lab technicians across the country and require labs to report their backlogs to the federal government. A New York Times editorial last week urged Congress to strengthen the law, calling untested evidence “a huge insult to rape victims.”Backlogs and untested evidence can also lead to wrongful convictions – when a piece of evidence that could potentially determine the identity of a perpetrator isn’t tested, the chances of an innocent person being implicated are higher. Backlogs and cutbacks can also stand in the way of tests on evidence that can free the innocent from prison.
Wisconsin Innocence Project Co-Director Keith Findley, who is the President of the Innocence Network, testified before the Senate panel that funds earmarked in 2004 for DNA testing in post-conviction appeals didn’t start flowing to states until last year. Better procedures are needed to fund and expedite post-conviction DNA testing, Findley said, and law enforcement agencies should be encouraged to preserve biological evidence collected in criminal cases. Fewer than half of police departments nationwide (43 percent) have computerized systems to track inventory of forensic evidence.
Watch video of the Senate hearing, and learn more about the Innocence Project’s work to expand access to post-conviction DNA testing.
Tags: Access to DNA Testing, Crime Lab Backlogs
DNA Backlogs Build Across the U.S.
Posted: December 7, 2009 1:10 pm
DNA testing has been suspended for over a month in New Mexico’s State Police crime lab after the state’s forensic accreditation lapsed at the end of October, and a backlog is building up. Officials reported recently that the lab is 124 cases behind and that at least two cases will have passed court deadlines before accreditation can be renewed, which could happen as soon as this week.
"This could be a blow to every district attorney's office across New Mexico, as well as law enforcement," Lemuel Martinez, a district attorney in New Mexico, told the Albuquerque Journal. "To not have that service readily available will really be terrible for the entire criminal justice system. I just hope no cases fall through the cracks."We’ve reported in recent weeks that backups in labs across the country have left critical evidence, including rape kits, untested nationwide in thousands of cases.
And budget shortfalls mean that some departments rule out testing in entire categories of crimes. Although DNA testing has been used increasingly in burglary cases in recent years, Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt told the Houston Chronicle on Friday that he can’t get funding to expand the use of DNA tests in burglary investigations. Burglaries are up 4.4 percent in Houston this year, with 21,212 break-ins through September.
It would cost $8 million to upgrade the current HPD crime lab to process DNA evidence from non-violent offenses in addition to violent crimes, Hurtt estimated….Even when testing is eventually conducted, lab backlogs can delay arrests for violent crimes and delay the slow investigations that eventually clear innocent suspects.
“I'm so frustrated with this whole process,” Hurtt said Friday. “We find a problem, we find a solution, and ... everybody says, ‘This is important. We have to do it.' However, it doesn't seem to be a priority. And we're not going to be able to do this for free.”
A Massachusetts man recently spent five months in jail before DNA tests proved he didn’t commit the crime he had been charged with -- and he was freed. Another man was recently charged with a 2003 sexual assault based on evidence collected in 2005, but not tested until this year.
Despite this, Massachusetts officials announced last week that are not focused on eliminating the state’s backlog of 16,000 cases.
Tags: Crime Lab Backlogs