I just watched a program on CBS's '60 Minutes' reporting on a joint-investigation with the Washington Post. Read about it at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/silent-injustice/index.html
For 40 years, the FBI crime lab experts have been testifying in cases that they could match bullets or fragments to guns or unspent bullets based upon bullet lead analysis.
Turns out that the test was never based on anything scientific but rather on subjective belief that it could be done. Now science has proven that it cannot be done and thus all the testimonies were false.
Unfortunately, defendants have been convicted based on this junk-science. But as usual, the FBI and Justice Department have been waffling and refusing to notify the appropriate Prosecuting and Defense attorneys; without such notice, affected prisoners will not even know that they have a possible grounds for appeal.
Now with the airing of the 60-Minutes program, the FBI has done an about-face and say they will be identifying all such cases in which their 'experts' testified and taking appropriate steps to notify the affected. Typically, there was no time-frame identified and I would not hold my breath on this being done in a timely manner.
Meanwhile, if you know of a case that involved bullet lead analysis, please take action immediately to notify those affected.
Each time a man stands up for an ideal... or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a ripple of hope...Robert Kennedy |
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