N.C. prosecutors say dozens more crime lab errors found
RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina's crime lab has found dozens more cases of mishandled blood evidence, adding to an already extensive review of years-old files, prosecutors said Tuesday.
District attorneys from around the state are preparing to reassess the 75 new cases in the coming months. Prosecutors have already analyzed some 150 cases as part of an inquiry last year, and they contend each conviction was appropriate because of other evidence such as confessions, eyewitnesses and ballistics.
"There was additional overwhelming evidence in every one of them," said Peg Dorer, executive director of the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys.
Dorer said SBI officials notified the prosecutors last week about the new 75 cases. SBI leaders didn't respond to requests for comment.
Defense attorneys questioned the reliability of the review led by prosecutors. Diane Savage, a lawyer who has focused on crime lab issues for years, said prosecutors can't know how a jury would respond if it learned about improperly handled evidence. And she noted that confessions and eyewitness testimony aren't always reliable.
"To me it seems like a complete whitewash," Savage said.
The case that triggered the SBI review in the first place was based in part on the mishandled blood evidence and unreliable eyewitness testimony. Greg Taylor was exonerated last year after being wrongly imprisoned nearly 17 years for a murder conviction.
During Taylor's innocence hearing, an SBI agent testified that agents were told to write in lab reports that evidence gave chemical indications for the presence of blood when the first test for blood came back positive. Agent Duane Deaver said agents were told to use that language even when a follow-up test was negative.
Deaver is linked to the five most egregious violations of blood evidence handling, and last year's SBI audit accused him of overstating or falsely reporting test results.
RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina's crime lab has found dozens more cases of mishandled blood evidence, adding to an already extensive review of years-old files, prosecutors said Tuesday.
District attorneys from around the state are preparing to reassess the 75 new cases in the coming months. Prosecutors have already analyzed some 150 cases as part of an inquiry last year, and they contend each conviction was appropriate because of other evidence such as confessions, eyewitnesses and ballistics.
"There was additional overwhelming evidence in every one of them," said Peg Dorer, executive director of the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys.
Dorer said SBI officials notified the prosecutors last week about the new 75 cases. SBI leaders didn't respond to requests for comment.
Defense attorneys questioned the reliability of the review led by prosecutors. Diane Savage, a lawyer who has focused on crime lab issues for years, said prosecutors can't know how a jury would respond if it learned about improperly handled evidence. And she noted that confessions and eyewitness testimony aren't always reliable.
"To me it seems like a complete whitewash," Savage said.
The case that triggered the SBI review in the first place was based in part on the mishandled blood evidence and unreliable eyewitness testimony. Greg Taylor was exonerated last year after being wrongly imprisoned nearly 17 years for a murder conviction.
During Taylor's innocence hearing, an SBI agent testified that agents were told to write in lab reports that evidence gave chemical indications for the presence of blood when the first test for blood came back positive. Agent Duane Deaver said agents were told to use that language even when a follow-up test was negative.
Deaver is linked to the five most egregious violations of blood evidence handling, and last year's SBI audit accused him of overstating or falsely reporting test results.
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