Big. Large.
You know about North Carolina, right? The state? Like many other states, they have a State Bureau of Investigation (SBI). Their SBI has a crime lab with a forensic biology section that tests stuff for ... stuff.
North Carolina's SBI lab underwent a lengthy review from that state's Innocence Commission. This commission consists of a three-judge panel and has like subpoena powers and stuff.
Said commission has determined that, out of 15,419 lab files from 1987 - 2003 that were screened and examined, there were a whopping 230 Laboratory cases in which the crime lab produced negative test results for a prosecution as well as positive, and only the positive results were reported. In some cases positive tests results were reported which didn't even exist.
In 40 of these cases no suspect was charged. Out of a total of 269 individuals ultimately charged in the remaining 190 cases, 80 are still serving sentences (four are on death row).
Three were executed.
Five died in prison.
This Innocence Commission is the only one of its kind in the United States. We need 49 more of them.
Read the whole report here.
North Carolina's SBI lab underwent a lengthy review from that state's Innocence Commission. This commission consists of a three-judge panel and has like subpoena powers and stuff.
Said commission has determined that, out of 15,419 lab files from 1987 - 2003 that were screened and examined, there were a whopping 230 Laboratory cases in which the crime lab produced negative test results for a prosecution as well as positive, and only the positive results were reported. In some cases positive tests results were reported which didn't even exist.
In 40 of these cases no suspect was charged. Out of a total of 269 individuals ultimately charged in the remaining 190 cases, 80 are still serving sentences (four are on death row).
Three were executed.
Five died in prison.
This Innocence Commission is the only one of its kind in the United States. We need 49 more of them.
Read the whole report here.