More on SBI Crime Lab in North Carolina: Flawed Evidence used in Death Penalty Cases

Earlier this month we blogged on the news of flawed forensic science developing out of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations Crime Lab. News to surface from the lab has included falsely reported evidence, flawed "testing" procedures, and false testimony in some cases. The Government ordered an investigation into the SBI lab after a recent case in which information involving falsified reports surfaced. The latest indicates that the SBI lab's findings may have been involved in death penalty cases that have resulted in executions. Full story from the Boston Herald here:

Analysts at North Carolina’s crime lab omitted, overstated or falsely reported blood evidence in dozens of cases, including three that ended in executions and another where two men were convicted of killing Michael Jordan’s father, according to a scathing independent review released Wednesday.

The government-ordered inquest by two former FBI officials found that agents of the State Bureau of Investigation repeatedly aided prosecutors in obtaining convictions over a 16-year period, mostly by misrepresenting blood evidence and keeping critical notes from defense attorneys. The Associated Press obtained the review of blood evidence in cases from 1987 to 2003 in advance of the report’s release.

It calls for a thorough examination of 190 criminal cases, stating that, at times, "information that may have been material and even favorable to the defense of an accused defendant was withheld or misrepresented."