CLPEX Chat Board

The whole nation is about to learn what Houston already knows through painful experience. Crime labs far too often produce not science but science fiction. A story in Thursday’s New York Times previewed a report expected later this month from the National Academy of Sciences.

According to the Times, people who have reviewed a draft of the academy’s report say it is “a sweeping critique of many forensic methods that the police and prosecutors rely on, including fingerprinting, firearms identification and analysis of bite marks, blood spatter, hair and handwriting. The report says such analyses are often handled by poorly trained technicians who then exaggerate the accuracy of their methods in court.”

Law enforcement agencies, both police and prosecutors, necessarily develop very powerful cultures. Like any cultures, they have their strengths and weaknesses. But they most definitely are not scientific cultures. Crime labs often are the budgetary stepchildren of a law enforcement agency — Exhibit A having been the Houston Police Lab — and they too often see police and prosecutors as their clients. True science has no clients.

The study is scheduled to be published next month in the Virginia Law Review, but its findings in an amicus brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court were described by Justice Stephen Breyer as being “filled with horror stories” of erroneous conclusions by police labs. The academy’s report is expected to cause quite a splash nationally, but will it provide an impetus for Texas to build a strong network of independent crime labs? A good sign is the emergence of three women in key positions who can push for reform:
• • Barbara Hervey, a judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest court for criminal matters, has spearheaded creation of a Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit to investigate a range of causes of wrongful convictions, including crime labs.
• • Dr. Sarah Kerrigan, who heads the forensic science program at Sam Houston State University’s College of Criminal Justice, is a strong proponent of independent crime labs. Trained at Scotland Yard’s lab, her most recent post was director of the State Laboratory in New Mexico, which was in the state’s health department.
• • Pat Lykos, the new Harris County district attorney, wants to replace the Houston Police Lab with a regional independent lab. She said she has talked with some county commissioners and the medical examiner and has received a favorable response. Speaking of the upcoming academy report, she said, “This is very exciting. It’s like all the stars are aligning to do something right.”
rick.casey@chron.com