Legal help scarce in cases uncovered by Houston lab audit

Posted: September 10, 2007 2:30 pm

Nearly five years after the Houston Police Department suspended DNA testing due to the discovery of lab errors, dozens of defendants who may have been convicted based on faulty forensic evidence have received little legal assistance. An extensive independent audit of the crime lab, conducted from 2005 to 2007, found at least 61 cases in which forensic analysts had made errors in reporting their findings. And a Houston Chronicle investigation released yesterday shows that defendants in two-thirds of these cases have received little to no legal help in determining how their convictions could be affected by the faulty testing.

The Chronicle found 24 cases among the 61 in which attorneys appointed or hired to represent people in the crime lab controversy have taken little meaningful action with new test results. In 15 other cases, defendants received no representation at all.
Robert Hayden, convicted in a 1994 assault, discovered six months ago while searching the Internet that investigators had found major issues with the DNA testing in his case.

"No one contacted me or asked me if I wanted an attorney," said 48-year-old Hayden, who completed his sentence and now lives with family near Atlanta. "All I want is to have an independent attorney look at this on my behalf."

Read the full story here. (Houston Chronicle, 09/10/2007)

Tags: George Rodriguez, Josiah Sutton

 

George Rodriguez celebrates two years of freedom

Posted: September 27, 2007 7:00 am

Saturday marks the second anniversary of George Rodriguez’s exoneration. Rodriguez, who was wrongfully convicted of rape and kidnapping, served 17 years of his 60-year sentence before DNA testing proved his innocence. His wrongful conviction was based largely on faulty analysis of hair and other biological evidence by the Houston Police Department crime lab.

The faulty forensic testing involved in Rodriguez’s case helped bring to light the unsound practices of the Houston crime lab. In 2002, all DNA testing at the lab was stopped after an audit raised questions about the integrity of the lab’s work. Following Rodriguez’s exoneration, a more thorough probe into the lab’s practices began. This examination revealed over 400 cases in which lab work was flawed.

Read more about the recent audit of the Houston crime lab.

Other exoneration anniversaries this week:

Today: Frederick Daye, California (Served 10 years, Exonerated 9/27/1994)

Tags: Frederick Daye, George Rodriguez

 

The Ronnie Taylor case: A chain of errors and a path to reform

Posted: October 15, 2007 3:51 pm

In 1994, when Ronnie Taylor had been in a Houston jail for a year awaiting a rape trial, he wrote a note to the judge: "I've set here for over one year without bond on charges I didn't commit. As each day passes it gets harder and harder.”

He was wrongfully convicted in 1995 and it was over 5,000 difficult days later – last Tuesday – that he finally walked free after DNA testing proved his innocence. An article in the Houston Chronicle this weekend uncovers the errors that led to Taylor’s wrongful conviction, and an editorial calls for immediate reform in Taylor’s name.

Taylor was convicted based on shoddy police work, a questionable eyewitness identification and a major error by the scandal-plagued Houston crime lab. Hours after the crime, the police had the street name of the man who is now implicated in the crime by a DNA match. Instead, they pursued Taylor and charged him after the questionable identification.

As the case against Taylor unraveled, leading to his release from prison last week, weaknesses throughout the investigation have become clear, according to a review of police and court documents.

Read the investigative report here. (Houston Chronicle, 10/14/07)

After Taylor’s release last Tuesday, he went straight to a Houston City Council meeting to ask officials to take action to ensure that no more innocent victims of crime lab error remain behind bars in Texas. The Chronicle pointed out this weekend that it has been five years since errors were first uncovered at the Houston Police Department Crime Lab, and yet hundreds of cases have never received a second look. The editorial praised a group of Houston judges for taking action last week by forming a panel to study 180 convictions for possible lab error. But private groups in Houston must work together to ensure that this effort is well staffed and moves quickly.

Among these inmates might be more Houstonians like Ronald Taylor: innocent men and women for whom each day behind bars is another robbed from their lives.

This is why it's so urgent to re-examine these documented miscarriages of justice. It's also why the job requires expert, disinterested professionals. Some judges presiding over the case reviews were prosecutors on some of the very cases in question.

The new panel must be able to publicly account for its progress by January. Ronald Gene Taylor should not have to wait one day longer to see Houston pursuing justice

Read the full editorial here. (Houston Chronicle, 10/14/07)

 

Houston convictions reopened due to possible lab error

Posted: October 23, 2007 5:05 pm

Houston prosecutors met with 19 inmates at a Texas state prison Monday to offer them a state-appointed legal representative to review possible lab errors in their case. Between now and Nov. 1, this option will be presented to 180 defendants whose convictions involved questionable serology testing at the Houston Police Department Crime Lab.

Prosecutor Marie Munier said the review might find that the serology lab work played very little in the conviction of an inmate.

“The question is do we have anyone in there that faulty serology work played a part or has someone that is innocent in prison. That’s the issue I’m concerned with,” she said.

Read the full story here. (KHOU, 10/22/07)

This review stems from a two-year independent audit of the lab, completed in June, that found hundreds of cases in need of review based on possible forensic error. The Innocence Project has identified more than 400 cases in need of immediate review and called upon Houston officials and private organizations to work together to address all of the cases.  The Innocence Project and local and state leaders maintain that the cases cannot be truly addressed unless independent attorneys with access to forensic expertise review them.

Read about the case of Ronnie Taylor, who was released Oct. 9 after DNA evidence proved his innocence of a rape for which he had served 12 years in prison. An error at the Houston crime lab contributed to Taylor’s wrongful conviction, and after his release he went straight to the Houston City Council to call for systemic reforms to review possible wrongful convictions and prevent future injustice.

Texas exoneree reunites with fiance in Atlanta

Posted: November 13, 2007 1:37 pm

When Ronnie Taylor was released last month after DNA tests proved he didn’t commit the rape for which he served 12 years in prison, he had devoted parents and a fiancé waiting for him. This month, he moved from Texas to Atlanta, Georgia, to reunite with his fiancé Jeanette Brown, who stood by him for more than a decade while he was wrongfully incarcerated.

“When you’re in a place like that, it’s important that somebody’s in your corner, keep in touch with you, and keep you optimistic,” Brown said of her relationship with Taylor.

Taylor was convicted based on eyewitness misidentification and faulty testing by the troubled Houston Police Department Crime Lab, and he said he knows he wasn’t the only innocent person in Texas prison.

Watch a video clip of Taylor and Brown here. (WSBTV, Atlanta, 11/12/2007)

Read more about Taylor’s case and the Houston crime lab here.

Houston Man Free After 23 Years

Posted: August 7, 2009 2:46 pm

Innocence Project client Ernest Sonnier is free today after more than two decades in Texas prisons for a rape he didn’t commit. DNA testing has proven Sonnier’s innocence of the 1985 attack and implicated two other men. Sonnier was freed on bond today by a Texas judge while he continues seeking to fully clear his name in the weeks ahead.

His mother, Altha Davis, told reporters that she always knew he was innocent because he was with her when the crime was allegedly committed – on Christmas Eve 1985. “It’s been long for me, so long,” she said. “I’m happy and so sad at the same time.” Watch a video interview with Sonnier’s mother here.

Sonnier will stay with Davis while he adjusts to his newfound freedom. He was joined in court today by family members, Innocence Project Staff Attorney Alba Morales, Social Worker Angela Amel and several people previously exonerated by DNA testing in Texas. Click here to send him a personal message welcoming him home after 23 long years of wrongful incarceration.

Sonnier’s case is the latest in a string of wrongful convictions caused in part by faulty forensic testing at the Houston Police Department Crime Lab. Although blood-type testing on important crime scene evidence conducted before trial didn’t match Sonnier’s type  –  and even suggested that he may be innocent – an analysts testified at his trial that he could still be the perpetrator, based on a conclusion not supported by the analyst’s own report.

Houston has been an epicenter of forensic problems – but faulty forensic testing is a national problem and must be addressed in order to prevent more wrongful convictions. Earlier this year, the National Academies of Sciences called for the creation of a National Institute of Forensic Science to provide research, support and oversight in forensic disciplines to prevent wrongful convictions and help law enforcement identify the perpetrators of crime.
Read more about troubles in the Houston crime lab, and sign a petition supporting the creation of an independent, science-based federal forensic entity.

News coverage of today’s hearing:

Houston Chronicle: Houston Judge Orders Release of Man Convicted of Rape

KHOU: Ernest Sonnier's Mom Said She Always Knew He Was Innocent

Innocence Project Press Release

Tags: Ernest Sonnier

 

Examining the Houston Crime Lab

Posted: August 12, 2009 6:17 pm

Ernest Sonnier walked out of a Houston courtroom last week a free man for the first time in 23 years, and his case is the latest to be overturned after faulty testing at the Houston Police Department Crime Lab contributed to a wrongful conviction.

An editorial today in the Houston Chronicle points out that two years after the conclusion of a $5 million investigation into problems at the lab, countless cases still need to be evaluated for possible retesting. In addition, the paper writes today that the case is a sign of the need for independent crime labs.

Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck said, “There are still thousands of cases from the Houston Crime Lab that need to be reviewed, and that needs to happen quickly.”

He praised the administration of DA Lykos for ending prosecutorial foot dragging, creating a unit to examine convicts' credible claims of innocence, and being “focused on getting to the truth.”

In addition to swiftly reviewing those remaining cases, local officials need to move forward with a plan to create a regional crime lab independent of police and prosecutor influence

Read the full editorial here. (Houston Chronicle, 08/11/09)

Last week, Chronicle columnist Rick Casey addressed another cause of wrongful conviction in a two-part series on eyewitness identification and the Timothy Cole case. Chronicle cartoonist Nick Anderson contributed a cartoon about faulty lineups. 

Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Forensic Oversight

 

Science Thursday - May 24, 2012

Posted: May 24, 2012 5:30 pm

Doubts linger about the reliability of a California coroner’s work, Houston takes another step toward ensuring the independence of its new Crime Laboratory, and a DC man’s conviction has been overturned based on new doubts about the forensic evidence. Here’s this week’s round up of forensic news:

A D.C. Superior Court judge has overturned the murder conviction of Santae Tribble.  Tribble was linked to the crime by microscopic hair evidence, which has been shown to be unreliable.  Recent DNA testing of the hair excluded Tribble.

Houston’s mayor has recommended nine members for the Houston Forensic Science Local Government Corporation which will oversee the new Houston Crime Laboratory.

A National Law Review op-ed discusses the importance of independent crime laboratories.

Professor David Kaye, a legal expert on scientific evidence, critiques a recent PBS Frontline documentary on forensic evidence, “The Real CSI,” as well as the response of the American Society of Crime Lab Directors to the episode.

Despite an initial review showing repeated flaws in a coroner’s work, a California Sheriff does not intend to review the other 300 cases the coroner conducted in his county.

The President of The Constitution Project calls for Congress to pass pending legislation to ensure that future defendants in systemic forensic failures have access to all information to which they are constitutionally entitled.