Crime Lab Errors 2000 closed DNA cases could be reopened

[Unregistered]

as reported today http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news...-flaws-8120365

Now, the crime lab faces revocation of its accreditation, and the Broward State Attorney’s Office will likely have to reopen thousands of closed cases.

Spokesman Ron Ishoy says the IT unit has been busy identifying criminal cases that may have been affected — approximately 2,000 in total, going back as far as 1999. The defendants in those cases will receive notices in coming weeks.

[Unregistered]

How much is this going to cost? Since they can't do it themselves, it will have to be sent out at a great cost. Time for FDLE to take over the Lab and save the tax payers money and BSO future embarrassments

[Unregistered]

How much is this going to cost? Since they can't do it themselves, it will have to be sent out at a great cost. Time for FDLE to take over the Lab and save the tax payers money and BSO future embarrassments

We can donate the money originally slated for body cameras instead

[Unregistered]

You guys are lying! Sheriff Scott Israel builder the best team ever! He got rid of the NEPOTISM and the political favors!

Stephen Greenbie (Best azzz kisser ever, proven)

[Unregistered]

Sadly, the Lab continues to embarrass the Sheriff. But you can keep up with the slogans as the Lab continues making mistakes. According to the article:

Scientists are telling them they’re doing things wrong, and they’re unwilling to change it, which is just wrong. It’s malpractice. Their response isn’t, ‘How can we make this right?’ but, ‘We feel like we haven’t done anything wrong, and we’re not going to do anything to change it.’”

[Unregistered]

How many drug cases had to be reworked and who paid for those? It seems all the work gets done twice in the Lab. FDLE doesn't have the problems we have.

[Unregistered]

BROWARD COUNTY CRIME LAB REPLACES THE BAD WITH THE SECRET
October 28, 2016 (Fault Lines) – DNA is the gold standard for evidence in a criminal case. When a prosecutor puts up DNA evidence, 12 people trained in the law by the TV show CSI jurors are putting somebody in the proverbial dirt. Find DNA evidence of your innocence? Watch prosecutors fight like the Russians are in the next county to make sure you don’t get to see it. It has become infallible evidence of what happened, where it happened, and who was there.

*WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!*

Of course, none of that is really true. DNA was young and we believed in it with all of our little hearts. But like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, it fell victim to time. As you grew up, you realized it was actually your parents that put the toy of your dreams under the tree and those delicious Cadbury eggs in your Easter basket. Sorry.

DNA met the same fate. It turns out it is like all other evidence in a criminal case. Handled by human, presented by humans, and, of course, screwed up by humans. Until death robots start prosecuting crimes, the system will be as imperfect as we humans are. Sorry again.

Broward County, Florida, is a great example of how the gold standard is really nothing more than tin foil.

Tiffany Roy was a former forensics analyst in Massachusetts. One too many snowpocolypses sent her south to sunny Florida, where she opened her own expert shop in Boynton Beach. In 2014, she was hired to review DNA evidence on a knife handle. The evidence was initially reviewed by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office Crime Lab in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Roy found the DNA evidence was actually inconclusive when reviewed with real scientific standards, as opposed to “the prosecution said he did it and we got DNA so let’s lock this son of a ***** up with some science stuff” standard employed by Broward County.

Roy complained to the American Society of Crime Lab Directors. Her complaint, relayed in language most of us cannot understand, was actually pretty simple. In regular-people terms, she noticed the DNA sample was not complete enough to reach any conclusion. And, to no one in the criminal defense field’s surprise, Broward County was comparing samples and making conclusions not supported by actual science. In other words, making shit up.

Here is a pretty good description of what was happening.

“DNA is like a genetic description… like hair color, eye color, weight, birth mark, or a tattoo,” [Roy] explains. “You can get a lot of mixable profile data, sort of like saying a perpetrator is a six-foot-tall black male in his twenties.” In her complaint, she accused BSO of using that generic description to charge specific people with crimes. “Broward is taking the ‘six-foot-tall black male’ information and making it seem like it’s got more importance than it really does,” she said.

As the Broward County crime lab fights to keep its accreditation, it looks like thousands of cases have been affected. Which means thousands of cases may be reopened.

Not all cases that involve DNA evidence are included — just those based on complex samples, where the DNA came from multiple individuals. Generally, this is an issue when the DNA is found on something that’s been touched or worn.

In other words, cases where a person was pinned to a crime based on a complex DNA sample that was misread and exaggerated by the prosecution’s analyst. Kind of important to get that right.

The good thing about all of this is that surely the Broward County lab has learned its lesson and corrected the problem. More careful analysis, better science, more cautious testimony, right?

Of course not.

There is a really good way to stop these silly defense lawyers and their experts from catching mistakes. Don’t let them know what is going on. Complex DNA samples can be analyzed using a new type of software called STRmix, specially designed to convict people analyze these complex samples.

If it’s new, it’s good. Except for one little problem. In a move that would make Kafka proud, the technology is secret. Of course.

But as Buzzfeed News reported earlier this year, the main problem with STRmix and other DNA-matching software programs is that hardly anyone knows how they work. That’s by design: The companies claim their methods are trade secrets and have been fighting to keep source codes under wraps. As a result, defense attorneys aren’t able to have experts independently verify the results.

Well. Isn’t that convenient. The lab gets busted making mistakes analyzing DNA. A normal person might think the solution to that problem is to fix the mistake. Not Broward County. They took a different route. Instead of fixing the mistake, they fixed the scrutiny. Just replace the current system with one where the mistakes can’t be found.

[Unregistered]

Hope this is true and my case is reopened.