June 18, 2003

Lives hang in the balance

The deficiencies of personnel, space and equipment in forensic science labs throughout the U.S. is leading to shoddy practices and erroneous DNA test results with potentially innocent lives hanging in the balance, Dr. Wecht says.

In an article published by Knight-Ridder, Dr. Wecht writes, "With few exceptions, crime labs are overwhelmingly backlogged with requests from law enforcement agencies, coroner and medical examiner offices, and other appropriate submitting entities for DNA tests." Such conditions can lead to horrendous problems, he argues.

Case in point: The Houston police chief requested the Texas Department of Public Safety to delete from its DNA database all cases examined by the Houston Police Department's crime lab due to the lab's poor management and improper procedures, calling into question cases involving defendants now on Death Row.

See article: DNA testing: challenging the gold standard

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When X-rays are ineffective

Identifying buried human remains can be a difficult process, depending on a wide range of factors. Next to comparing skeletal remains with dental records and X-rays, Dr. Wecht says investigators can connect the DNA results of remains to the results of testing on DNA samples a person may have left behind, such as dried saliva on a toothbrush or hair in a hairbrush. See Identifying human remains a slow, tedious task, Times-Shamrock.

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June 17, 2003

Decomposition of evidence

Investigators have found the remains of Molly Bish, a Massachusetts teen who had been missing since June 2000, but finding her killer may still prove difficult. Dr. Wecht told the Boston Globe whatever evidence the killer may have left at the crime scene - a footprint, fingerprint, hair, semen - is gone. Things pysically decompose. Moreover, he said skeletal remains also often provide no evidence, particulary in cases involving young women who've been strangled or suffocated.

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