The Dog i The House

The Dog i The House

d;'ffupwefuewfpwojqfwqriewqr[opwirwpqirw[(BALTIMORE, MD; December 17, 2008) – Negligence in the Baltimore Police Department’s crime lab tainted DNA analysis in an unknown number of criminal cases for seven years and raises serious questions about other forensic work in the lab, the Innocence Project said today in a formal allegation that the state is legally required to investigate.

In August, the Baltimore Police Department revealed that its lab analysts were contaminating evidence with their own DNA. The lab did not follow the standard practice of putting DNA samples of its own employees into a database, which safeguards against contamination. As a result, when Baltimore lab employees handled evidence and left their own DNA on it, analysts identified it as foreign DNA that could have been from perpetrators of crime. This can incorrectly steer investigators away from identifying criminals, can weaken criminal prosecutions (by suggesting that another, unidentified person’s DNA was present at the crime scene), and can lead police to discount what should be strong DNA evidence and instead focus on innocent suspects, the Innocence Project said in today’s allegation.   (The Innocence Project is affiliated Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University.)

The eight-page allegation, filed with the Maryland State Police, requests a thorough investigation of the contamination and a re-examination of all cases that may have been affected. It also requests that the State Police identify corrective action and changes in lab policies and procedures to prevent future contamination. Finally, the allegation requests that all of the investigation’s findings be presented in a public report.

Federal law requires states, cities and counties to have oversight mechanisms in place if they receive federal money for their crime labs. Specifically, the law (passed in 2004) requires jurisdictions seeking federal funding for their forensic facilities to identify a...