It was spring of 1989 and the then-50-year-old Chinese . To buttress law enforcement accusations, Kofoed planted traces of blood which tied the suspects to the murder scene, ultimately securing a guilty verdict in court. Gabriel Fernandez, an 8-year-old boy, was found dead with multiple trauma wounds on March 22, 2013. For aspiring forensics professionals, these documented abuses of the science are presented as cautionary tales. Of course, the evidence is available for experts with trained eyes and the proper equipment, but the science isnt without fault. When detectives arrived at OJ Simpsons home to inform him of the death of his ex-wife, they noticed blood on Simpsons white Ford Bronco. The two were . A series of arson attacks against forensic laboratories in Brussels has alerted the world to a huge security fail going on in Belgium. Lack of verifiable evidence; Failure to look for witnesses; Improper procedural process; If the investigation was mishandled, the case may never go to court or if it does, the judge may dismiss it from further court procedures. Photograph: Stefano Medici/AP. During Camms trial, the prosecution stated that Camm had dual motives: a $750,000 life insurance policy and alleged infidelity. Andersons account of the illegal evidence planting operation wasnt enough to convict every officer he claimed had framed innocent people to pad their arrest numbers. (Evans, 2003) Whether its DNA testing, tool mark identification, bite mark measuring, or blood spatter analysis, its assumed that these methods are reliable, consistent, and valid measures of criminal activity. had been cut on his left hand, and Nicoles fresh blood was found on his socks. Authorities suspected something might be amiss when Massachusetts forensics chemist Annie Dookhan somehow managed to process a large volume of samples in a relatively short time. Evidence Collection "The international procedures for the inspection [of the scene of a crime] were not followed," Stefano Conti and Carla Vecciotti, both professors, said in their report. She then compounded the problem by testifying about her findings during criminal trials. Podlecki also testified that both Williams and Adams tested positive for being type A secretors, an assertion later refuted by an independent forensic witness. Defence lawyers argued that it was to be expected that Knox would have used the knife while visiting Sollecito, her boyfriend at the time of the killing. One piece of key evidence that was overlooked was Michael's navy blue shirt. As in the Zhang case, network logs can be analyzed to identify mass movements or deletions of data and other suspect user activity. On May 11, 1978, newly engaged Carol Schmal and Lawrence Lionberg were found shot in the head. The cases were reported to include homicide investigations and officer-involved shootings. In 2006, the lab rehired a forensic analyst who previously resigned under suspicion of falsifying data. More information about the O.J. O.C. Mrs. Hall was the obvious mastermind. In the aftermath of successful attacks on Belgiums forensic labs, European officials are now concerned about the security of their nuclear sites as well. The appeal by Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito against their conviction for the killing of the British student Meredith Kercher took a significant turn yesterday when independent, court-appointed. Willie owned a gun of the same caliber as the one that killed the couple, and he had complained to friends at a local pub that Edward was not giving him enough allowance from the family funds. In many cases, security for the labs consisted of nothing more than a few cameras and a wire fence. As one would expect, the costs of cleaning up after the trail of investigative mayhem have been astronomical. Simpson We'd be remiss if we started our list anywhere other than the case dubbed the " trial of the century. 4.2 Suzanne Johnson. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. It is reported that the DNA evidence showed that the chance that some of the blood found near the bodies came from anyone but Simpson was 1 in 170 million. But the evidence of his wrongdoing, along with the actions of other Brooklyn officers, was enough to throw out 400 different drug cases and secure the release of over two dozen people wrongfully arrested on drug charges. Beyond poor evidence collection techniques, sloppy maneuvering at the scene caused more bloody shoe prints to be left behind by LAPD than by the perpetrator. After pleading guilty to perjury, obstruction of justice, and evidence tampering, she received a prison sentence of three to five years, followed by two years of probation. And, for a time, its Sapphire sex crimes unit was expected to be no exception. Simpson case can be found here. This was particularly difficult to achieve in this case. Furthermore, Johnny Webb, a jailhouse informant, testified against Willingham claiming he had confessed to the arson leading to the murders. The person who drew the blood could only guess he had taken 8 mL; only 6 mL could be accounted for by the LAPD. On December 23, 1991, a fire ravaged Cameron Todd Willinghams house killing his two-year-old daughter and one-year-old twins, while Willingham escaped with minor burns. In 16 cases, pieces of evidence were returned to the wrong rape kit, hindering 19 investigations. [7] More than 400 terrorist investigations may have been compromised by evidence lost in the fires. Camm was charged once againthis time as a co-conspirator with Boney. If evidence with Simpsons blood showed traces of EDTA, the defense claimed, then that blood had to have come from the lab, which meant that it was planted. Simpsons blood assumed missing from a vial of evidence. His parents were both charged and convicted of murdering Gabriel due to signs of abuse. The jurors agreed that the DNA testimony was difficult to appreciate since expert witnesses were not able to put their evidence in terms that the jury could understand. Its a grim burden that grows ever heavier in light of the fact that, for decades, the Houston Police Department crime lab has relied on faulty DNA analyses and bogus courtroom testimony that, according to a lab director, have tainted at least 5,000 to 10,000 cases. According to a 2010 investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), a detective constable and two trainees revised the statement of a rape survivor to suggest that she had retracted her claims. The investigation concluded that Deras "mishandled sensitive evidence" pertaining to 21-year-old Lauren McCluskey's case while he was employed with the university's police department. Many experts assert that it can be easily compromised, planted, or deleted without a trace. How many innocent people are serving sentences for crimes they didnt commit? In West Virginia alone, Zain may have lied in as many as 182 different cases. A former Boulder, Colorado, police chief who investigated the death of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBent Ramsey has acknowledged the murder case was mishandled. He reported another death as homicide caused by blunt force trauma, which was revealed to be an accidental drowning.[9]. The theft proved pointless, however, when police discovered that all of the information on the servers involved old cases that had already been tried in court. I can't find the actual judge's decision. Firefox was used to access an address with "chloroform.htm.". Giving evidence to a justice select committee inquiry into failures to hand over material that have led to multiple court cases collapsing, leading digital forensic experts warned of funding . Evidence to be used against European terrorists, including those suspected in the most recent attacks against Paris, has been burned, lost, or compromised during the fires. grimm's geometric stacker famous cases where evidence was mishandled "Even after the state Supreme Court threw out Ralph Armstrong's conviction based on evidence of his innocence, the prosecutor continued to withhold yet more evidence of his innocence." The Innocence Project got involved in Armstrong's case in 1993 and has worked on the case ever since with Wisconsin attorneys Jerome Buting and Keith Belzer. Amanda Knox was a 20-year old American citizen living in Perugia, Italy, sharing an apartment with several other women. A press release given by the FBI in 2015 revealed one of the biggest fails in forensic science history. The government has since identified nearly 3,000 cases for review, based on questionable hair analysis testimony.[8]. This is a broad concept that can range from using excessive force, performing illegal searches, selective law . recent interviews with three prominent professors, the police didnt wear caps or change gloves as they collected items, planted evidence on the part of the detectives, a fire ravaged Cameron Todd Willinghams house killing his two-year-old daughter and one-year-old twins, National Criminal Justice Month 2021: An Advocacy Toolkit, Homicide Investigations: How to Determine Time of Death, How To Become a Crime Scene Technician - Education & Certification Guide. An internal investigation conducted two years ago by the Orange County Sheriff's Department, the findings of which were not made public at the time, uncovered systematic mishandling of evidence . What remained to be a mystery for more than 30 years was finally solved via digital forensics in the early 2000s. Still convinced of Knox and Sollecitos guilt, the prosecution spun a narrative claiming the couple had partnered with Guede in Kerchers murder. To better understand the tragic rippling effect of the lost evidence in this case, keep reading. While some of those men were exonerated, the exact number of cases influenced by Zain is unknowable. The defense team stated that EDTA was found in the samples of blood that were collected at the crime scene. But thats only the beginning. Gibson claimed to have heard a female voice call out, Henry! before the fatal shots were fired. Simpson was accused of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown-Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman on June 12, 1994, between approximately 9:40 p.m. and 10:55 p.m., in the front courtyard of her condominium on Bundy Drive, Brentwood. Defense attorneys were quick to argue that lax procedures by the forensics team could have led to the degradation or cross-contamination of blood evidence. During the trial, all of the missteps of the forensic team came to light, including the possibility of evidence tampering (and obvious evidence mishandling), as well as the glaring absence of evidence security. Vendors camped at the site, selling balloons and soft drinks to the hundreds of visitors trampling around the crime scene. An eyewitness claimed to have seen Dennis Williams, Kenneth Adams, and Willie Rainge in the abandoned townhouses where the bodies of the victims were found. 1. But, for residents of Douglas County, Nebraska, those three letters could just as easily stand for Criminal Subterfuge in Investigations thanks to disgraced David Kofoed, whose tenure as chief of the local CSI division was marred by the willful manipulation of DNA evidence in a series of murder cases. Somehow, these flashing signs of inability didnt prevent him from landing jobs as a police chemist for the state of West Virginia and chief of physical evidence in Bexar County, Texas. On October 24, 2015, after spending 13 years in prison for the deaths of his wife and two children, David Camm was acquitted and released. He spent 26 years in jail before a group called The . At the heart of the scandal were five forensic investigators from Troop C. According to investigators, these individuals benefited from a culture of lax, and even tacitly complicit, oversight that nurtured a felonious hubris. The recanted testimony was never reported to Willinghams attorneys and the prosecution ultimately cited the statute of limitations. Although the jurists hold the law to be always fixed and certain, yet the discovery of the fact, they say, may From the Introduction. The law of negligence in place at the time only really came into play through a contract, which in this case there was none. In at least 26 cases, the technician missed biological evidence that could have been useful for a rape trial. Marco Raymond Butterfield, 22, was arrested following the robbery and shooting of a 27-year-old man outside a barber shop in northwest Oklahoma City. Whatever the outcome, the jurors must feel that their decision is beyond a reasonable doubt. EDTA is a blood fixer (anticoagulant) used in labs and mixed with collected blood. Three days later, Camm was arrested for the deaths of his family. O.J. Eleanors tongue had been removed, a horrifying insult to her love of singing. Dookhan was indicted on 27 charges, including obstruction of justice for tampering with evidence, perjury, and even falsifying her university degree. The DNA lab in Charleroi, recently struck by arsonists in 2016, had previously been attacked in 2001 and 2003, while the forensic laboratory in Ghent University had been targeted in 2005. Not only is there a huge volume of data collected for current investigations, but there is also a huge volume of digital forensics that must be stored indefinitely, in case of later appeals. Fred Zains academic record does not reveal the makings of a person fit to wield a beaker, let alone work in a forensics lab. Over her career, Dookhan completed as many as 60,000 analyses, making her partly responsible for an estimated 11,000 criminal convictions. A sixth officer, situated in Troop F, had long known the other five perpetrators and undoubtedly shared in their criminal nonchalance, even planting evidence in one instance where a conviction would have been secured without it. In the face of brazen inaction by Scotland Yards sex crimes investigators, a drastic rejiggering of the force followed. Simpson trial. Coworkers at the medical examiners office had to work around the clock double-checking the fired technicians findings. But, like so many corruption cases, Lowrys greatest crime may not be one which exists on any US law book. The Thornes had just been named as the winners of the Opera House lottery, established to raise money to build Joern Utzon's masterpiece. Individuals like 54-year-old Betty Patterson spent three years in prison on false charges of selling cocaine thanks to planted evidence. jails are located at 550 N. Flower St. in. Famous cases Bill Miner. And a certain heightened credibility comes with that. Every city has ignominious chapters in its history that it would rather forget. A lawmans brother was later caught trying to sell some of the documents to reporters. For Philadelphia, one of those chapters is undoubtedly devoted to its 39th district police officers. After various appeals and retrials, students from the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalismincluding award-winning NPR journalist Laura Sullivanpresented new evidence in 1996. Independent experts have seriously disputed much of the scientific evidence relied on in the case. A Question of Character This was probably the only case on record where criminals trying to steal old forensics were caught using new forensics.[4]. Sheriff's Department headquarters and O.C. According to an examiners study, at least 90 percent of trial transcripts in their Microscopic Hair Comparison Analysis Review contained erroneous statements. 9. 10 Famous Cases Cracked by Forensics. Coupled with confessions from the murderers and DNA evidence, Williams, Adams, Rainge, and Jimerson were finally exonerated after 17 years in prison. He estimated internal organ weight measurements for subjects that had never been cut open. Other mistakes included overlooking stains, botched chemical tests, and improperly processed rape kits.[3]. Two people were convicted and imprisoned for that brutal affair: Michael Kinge and his mother, Shirley. After the police refused, Romanellis friend broke through the door to uncover Kerchers bloody and partially naked body. How many criminals are walking free due to untested rape kit backlogs? We. Photos were taken of critical evidence without scales in them to aid in measurement taking. But, in at least one other instance, he failed to submit marijuana and guns seized during a crime, and there is some cause to believe that he may have been involved in the displacement of $130,000 confiscated during an FBI search. Jimerson was not initially convicted because Gray had withdrawn her testimony, although she later testified against him in a plea deal with the prosecutors and he was sentenced to death. Troop Cs incorrigible corruption might have gone unchecked were it not for a miscalculation by former trooper David Harding. IDAHO, PETITIONER v. LAURA LEE WRIGHT. Before mitochondrial testing, the hair of a suspect was tested using microscopic analysis, which shows if the hair has a similar appearance to hair taken from the scene of a crime. At trial, several issues became evident, including: Roughly 1.5 ml of Simpson's blood was mysteriously absent from a container; The blood was not immediately entered into the chain of custody; Vasquez also had claimed that Willinghams first and second-degree burns were most likely self-inflicted with the intent to avert suspicion. Notably, all three of the interviewed professors highly recommended a strong core of hard science courses to thrive in forensics careers. Those struggling used the extra drugs to frame innocent people. "Not only should we not always trust the machine, we can't always trust the person that interprets the machine." Dror and Nina Sunde at the University of Oslo, Norway, gave 53 digital forensics. "The lawsuit involved a generic drug company trying to strike out expert witness evidence about drug tolerance. On May 3, 2007, 3-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared from her family's vacation apartment in Praia da Luz, in southwest Portugal. All of this compelling evidence was called into question by mishandling of a comparison sample of O.J.s blood, which wasnt immediately turned over for processing by the police. In hindsight, one might characterize the scandal as a logical offshoot of the very system which condemns its criminality. John Vasquez, who worked in evidence management for 25 years, admitted that during his career, hed seen unlabeled evidence tossed into a closet, a hand grenade stored in a glass jar, boxes of corrosive chemicals leaking onto other boxes of evidence, and forensic samples stored in a clerks office next to employees food and drinks. In 2006, he faked DNA evidence that was used to solve the murder of Jessica OGrady. 10 Examples of Police Intimidation Cases: Wrapping Up. Copyright 2022 Crime Museum, LLC - All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy |. On June 13, 1994, the bodies of Ron Goldman and the ex-wife of OJ Simpson, Nicole Brown, were found outside of Browns home. Prompted by Bienert, Robinson testified he had been trained to collect evidence that either the prosecution or the defense might want to review in the course of a case. One of the greatest tragedies in the criminal justice system is the conviction of a person for a crime he or she did not commit. Joseph Sledge, for example, served 36 years for a crime in North Carolina, but he could have been out decades earlier if police hadnt misplaced evidence from his trial. Forensic evidence is crucial to crime scene investigators. All seven were examined and proved inconsistent with his findings. And, for those eight yearswhich is a long time to get away with any crimethose troopers helped decide thousands of felony cases across more than half a dozen counties across New York. Michelle Theer (2000): On December 17 th, 2000, John Diamond shot and killed Air Force Captain Marty Theer. Research has shown that " analysis of forensic evidence was associated with [increased] case referrals to prosecutors, [and] charges filed ." Evidence from a medical forensic exam can be key in the prosecution of a sexual assault case. Since the discovery of Dookhans conduct, at least 1,100 criminal cases have been dropped or dismissed and at least $8.5 million has been spent attempting to account for her mountain of faked lab data. Lawyers, experts say forensic evidence was too experimental for courtroom. One of them, Briton Meredith Kercher, was murdered on . The carnage disturbed Knox, who described her roommate as neat and tidy. Knox had spent the night with her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and she attempted to get into Kerchers room, which was locked. Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] - The Snail-Flavoured Ginger Beer. 2 Henry and Leon McCollum. Prior to exiting a taxi at the fast food chain Popeye's in New York last October, Franqueira refused to pay his fare and pulled a gun on the driver. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. Failure to secure the scene was just the beginning of this forensic fiasco. The Sapphire unit was merged with the Metropolitan police forces child abuse division, and bolstered with 100 additional officers in what was essentially a vote of no confidence for what was supposed to be a world-class collection of crime solvers. Key pieces of evidence left by the killer were passed around by reporters. Then, 2014 brought yet another wave of criticism when another forensic analyst resigned after revelations that he eschewed lab protocols and falsified official records, casting an all-too-familiar doubt on roughly 180 criminal cases. During the first trial in 1978, state serologist Michael Podlecki testified that at least one of the rapists had type A secretor blood, a trait shared with approximately 25 percent of the population. The officer who arrested Oscar Pistorius on the night Reeva Steenkamp was killed last year testified Friday that police at the crime scene mishandled evidence, including a ballistics expert who. Williams, Adams, Rainge, and Gray all received harsh sentences. Once the thieves discovered that the information was useless, they had no idea what to do with the server or how to abandon it without arousing suspicion. Testimony that hair . [1] Even those at the upper echelons of criminal justice have been found guilty of fraud in forensics. With a team of criminals and incompetents running the drug lab, unconscionable misconduct ensued. In a scandal that broke on the heels of extensive efforts to reform Philadelphias habitually corrupt police force, the officers of the 39th shocked the conscience of Philadelphia with tales of false arrests, evidence tampering, violence, and even theft. Conspiracy theorists helped spread the rumor that a racist cop had killed both Nicole and Ron to frame O.J. But, according to law enforcement, those drugs were being used to pay informants for information that would lead to major arrests in a case of noble cause corruption. Three years later, the public was blindsided by the news that the tale of evil woven by New Yorks finest was also a cover for the intentional arrest of innocent people. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. For an unattended death, law enforcement must use a combination of investigative techniques and science to calculate how much time elapsed between the victim taking their last breath and their remains being found. A major hurdle that the prosecution team failed to overcome was the lack of knowledge and understanding regarding forensics, specifically the relatively new science of DNA. Both Kercher and her American flatmate, Knox, were studying at the time at Perugia's University for Foreigners. O.J. He has remained in jail since the spring of 2013. It will depend on the judge and whether the mishandled components are enough to throw out the case. However, additional evidence later led authorities to the actual perpetrators of the double homicide and exposed Kofoeds deception. To add to the problem, the blood was not immediately turned over as evidence but was carried around for several hours before it was entered into the chain of custody, allowing for speculation of when and how the 1.5 mL of blood may have disappeared. But, despite the laudable efforts of local and federal officials to stem the tide of narcotic officer corruption in Philadelphia, rampant corruption is alive and well on the streets of Philadelphia. Unfortunately, Dookhan wasnt some laboratory wunderkind with a passion for drug offenses. Nov. 22, 2019. The following are ten cases where shocking forensic fails bungled the case and allowed murderers to walk away from justiceor sent innocent people to prison. The LAPD could not counter the idea of lost blood because there was no documentation of how much reference blood was taken from Simpson as evidence. Another witness named Paula Graya woman with an IQ of 55 who would later recant her testimony, thereby facing perjury chargesadded Verneal Jimerson to the attackers. The world watched every detail of the case on Court TV, which highlighted the many mistakes of forensics investigators as an epic fail. A Question of Planted Evidence STORY HIGHLIGHTS. Disorganization was rife, and records were regularly falsified. The expert's affidavit merely referenced to a homepage link and did not specify nor attach any webpage to be presented as exhibits. Helmsman of the drug lab for nearly two decades, and himself suspected of professional improprieties, Callery had overseen a spate of irresponsible hiring decisions. The ensuing investigation resulted in guilty pleas from five troopers and a criminal conviction of the sixth. In Fuhrmans book, he stated that at one point he was even accused of killing Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman himself. But they may explain why Zain spent the duration of his forensics career habitually faking lab results and lying to courtrooms in order to secure criminal convictions. Prosecutorial misconduct complaints against several lawyers and police officers who worked regularly with Erdmann claimed that the lawmen bribed, threatened, or encouraged the doctor to provide whatever evidence was needed to secure a conviction. was acquitted of all charges based on reasonable doubt. Police used forensic evidence found at the scene to track the thieves, which led to their houses. Simpson murder case. In a separate, more jarring, example of wanton duplicity, detective constable Ryan Coleman-Farrow, another member of the allegedly elite Sapphire unit, simply declined to pursue the claims of at least 12 women who reported sexual assaults between 2007 and 2010. The first decision to uphold the admission of DNA evidence in s tate appellate court was in 1988; before that, DNA was thought of as too inconclusive.Now c ourts have determined that DNA identification theory, practice, and techniques are widely accepted among the scientific community and therefore valid as . With police performance measured in numbers of arrests, officers who failed to book enough criminals risked such penalties as being removed from undercover assignments. Without perfect organization and updated records, things inevitably go missing, and when they do, defendants end up paying a very steep price. In the wake of the legal, ethical, and financial chaos wrought by Annie Dookhan, her punishment may strike many as light. Few cases in history have been more focused on forensic evidence than the O.J. While the future of forensics methods is beyond the scope of this article, its important to remember examples where the collection or processing of evidence have failed. 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