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New tests urged in audit of Houston lab
Posted: June 14, 2007 10:10 am
The final report in a comprehensive investigation of the Houston crime lab calls for officials to retest evidence in at least 413 cases in which defendants were convicted based on testing that may have been flawed. The report, issued yesterday, closes a two-year investigation headed by independent investigator Michael Bromwich, and it details dozens of testing errors and questionable practices uncovered at the Houston lab.
"We found that the serology work that the Crime Lab did actually perform during the 1980-1992 period was generally unreliable," Bromwich added.Download the full report and read the special investigator's press release here.
Bromwich said the cost of the retest in problem serology cases should be covered by the city and the county.
The Bromwich probe, which began in March of 2005, has uncovered severe and pervasive problems at the Houston Police Department crime lab that never before had come to light in the years controversy has plagued the lab.
Read the full story here. (Houston Chronicle, 6/13/07)
Houston lab probe leads to more questions
Posted: June 18, 2007 11:22 am
The final report of an extensive audit of the Houston crime lab uncovered dozens of incidences of forensic neglect and potential misconduct. But the report did not examine how potentially-mishandled evidence impacted convictions, according to the independent investigator in charge of the audit.
"It is important that somebody does what we did not do, which is to really look at whether it (HPD's work) really mattered in the larger context in the case," said Michael Bromwich, whose two-year, $5.3 million crime lab investigation ended last week. "To the extent that the people care about whether there were cases of injustice, some mechanism has to be devised to address those cases in a way that people feel this final but important step has been adequately addressed."
Read the full story here. (Houston Chronicle, 06/17/07)
Read more about the investigator’s final report in our blog or download the full report here. View a list of Texas exonerees here.
Tags: Texas
Special master urged for Houston crime lab review
Posted: August 21, 2007 2:27 pm
In testimony yesterday before two Texas House of Representatives committees, the independent investigator who recently completed an extensive audit of Houston’s crime lab called for the appointment of an independent official to review cases for possible retesting.
Michael Bromwich, a former U.S. Justice Department Inspector General, found extensive problems with training and testing at the Houston lab during the two-year review he led. Bromwich yesterday repeated his call for a special master to evaluate more than 600 cases in which inconsistencies were identified by the audit. But Houston’s mayor, police chief and district attorney, have all rejected Bromwich’s request.
(Police Chief Harold ) Hurtt and (Harris County District Attorney Chuck) Rosenthal again rejected the idea of appointing a special master.Read more about the history of the Houston crime lab scandal in previous blog posts.
Rosenthal said his office has already contacted the judges in almost 200 cases where problems with evidence analysis may have affected the outcome.
He said those judges will appoint attorneys for defendants who want one, and they will go through the evidence.
Read the full story here. (Houston Chronicle, 08/21/2007)
Read about the exoneration of George Rodriguez, which helped uncover the problems in the Houston crime lab.
Tags: George Rodriguez
Analysts said Houston lab was "clearly out of control" before closing last month
Posted: February 22, 2008 4:45 pm
A new report on the Houston Police Department Crime Lab reveals testing errors and lost evidence at the long-troubled lab in the months leading up to the DNA lab’s closure in January. This new controversy comes after the Houston lab had apparently recovered from years of scandal. The lab’s DNA section was first closed in 2002, when evidence of misconduct and negligence was first revealed. A two-year independent audit of the lab found hundreds of cases with testing problems, raising questions for defendants who were convicted based on test results from the lab. Three wrongful convictions based on faulty test results have been overturned by DNA testing in recent years, and several more cases are currently in testing.
The DNA lab was closed in January after an investigation revealed that the DNA director had helped employees cheat on routine proficiency tests. The report released today uncovers additional allegations of misconduct.
Contaminated samples and questionable procedures were among problems Vanessa Nelson relayed in September to investigators probing allegations of policy violations by the DNA division leader, which led to her resignation last month.
Nelson's comments were part of a 73-page investigative police report obtained by the Houston Chronicle for a story in its Friday editions. The internal probe was the latest problem for the crime lab, where issues over accuracy and shoddy work has cast doubt on thousands of cases.
"Analyst morale is at an all-time low, and I question whether or not the section should suspend testing until the entire issue is resolved," Nelson told investigators Sept. 8.
Read the full story here. (Houston Chronicle, 02/22/2008)
Read more about problems at the Houston crime lab and the Innocence Project’s recommendations for crime lab oversight nationwide.
Houston Prosecutor Calls for Emergency DNA Lab
Posted: July 19, 2010 6:48 pm
In the meantime, the HPD will hire additional analysts and buy new equipment to update the current DNA lab at the downtown police headquarters. Innocence Project of Texas General Counsel Jeff Blackburn told the Chronicle that the responsibility for forensic testing should be moved to an independent entity:
"At a bare minimum, the whole process of forensic testing — old cases or new cases — has to be removed over to some responsible entity and, given the track record of HPD, they're not the ones to do this," said Jeff Blackburn, general counsel for the Innocence Project of Texas. "They just can't clean this up."
Harris County's Chief Medical examiner Dr. Luis A Sanchez said his department is ready to step in and take over
DNA testing from the HPD.
"Valid science is the cornerstone of the criminal justice system," Sanchez wrote in a statement. "Our commitment to move forward with this essential endeavor rests with the City of Houston. We now await the necessary resources to create and support the regional DNA laboratory."
Read the full story here.
Read more about past problems at the HPD crime lab.
Tags: Forensic Oversight