famous cases where evidence was mishandled

The next day brought another disturbing discovery: A county road worker found 16-year-old Patricia Kalitzke's body in an area north of Great Falls, the paper reports. And, for a time, its Sapphire sex crimes unit was expected to be no exception. Investigators exhumed seven bodies that Erdmann had testified about. But, like so many corruption cases, Lowrys greatest crime may not be one which exists on any US law book. Simpson We'd be remiss if we started our list anywhere other than the case dubbed the " trial of the century. H.E. Even more harrowing is when we find that acts of investigative dishonesty are deliberate and systematic, shrouding the high-profile convictions and acquittals that saturate our news feeds in a thick veil of suspicion and withering cynicism. He did not perform a thorough psychiatric evaluation. IDAHO, PETITIONER v. LAURA LEE WRIGHT. According to Officer Steve Anderson, who himself was caught partaking in the scheme, this translated into undercover narcotics agents handing over some of the drugs purchased during covert operations to officers who were struggling to meet arrest quotas. 8. You can get free samples of her books here or watch free tarot videos on her YouTube channel here. Drunk Police Officer. Simpson's Case. 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. Belgian prosecutors are angered over the lack of adequate security measures for scientific labs in their nation, especially since there was sufficient warning that the sites were vulnerable to attack. Not only did several key witnesses against Mrs. Hall disappear forever, but forensic evidence did as well. A Canadian Pacific . The collection and meticulous analysis of evidence arent easy processes and the techniques are still far from perfect. Prosecutors also rely on scientific evidence to establish and prove their cases during prosecution. On July 22, 1933, he and another man kidnapped wealthy Oklahoma City oilman Charles Urschel. But, when an agent like Matthew Lowry is caught getting high on heroin that he stole from an FBI crime lab, that credence suffers greatly. 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. On November 2, 2007, American college student Amanda Knox returned to her flat in Perugia, Italy. 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. Then state crime lab director, Arnold Melnikoff, reported in his analysis that the hair "had characteristics consistent with the defendant (Barry Beach)," a conclusion which was not . 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. O.J. Two people were convicted and imprisoned for that brutal affair: Michael Kinge and his mother, Shirley. In fact, she didnt even have the masters degree she claimed to have earned. "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. In 1999, the Ford Heights Four won a $36 million in damages from Cook Countythe largest settlement for a civil rights case in U.S. history. During Camms trial, the prosecution stated that Camm had dual motives: a $750,000 life insurance policy and alleged infidelity. Gibson claimed to have heard a female voice call out, Henry! before the fatal shots were fired. 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. The claimant, Donoghue, brought a claim for personal injury against the . The victims were from one jurisdiction, but their bodies were found in another, leading to disagreements about which department should collect the forensic evidence. Defense attorneys became suspicious because Erdmann seemed to be able to supply prosecutors with whatever testimony they needed, without the proper testing to back up his reports. 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. Forensic evidence is crucial to crime scene investigators. For example, the police didnt wear caps or change gloves as they collected items, allowing cross-contamination of the objects in the room. According to the Innocence Project, out of 329 wrongful convictions overturned by new DNA testing, 74 were due to erroneous microscopic hair evidence. Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] - The Snail-Flavoured Ginger Beer. The prosecution had expert witnesses who testified that the evidence was often mishandled. In total, those prisoners lost 17,690 years behind bars. Detective Fuhrman was discredited by the prosecution when he was alleged to be a racist and accused of planting evidence. Gerald M. LaPorte Westend61, Getty Images (see reuse policy). Over the course of a 14-year career, Baird was the target of nearly two dozen official complaints related to his propensity for police brutality, inflated criminal charges, robbing drug dealers, and the wholesale planting of narcotic evidence on innocent peoplean impressive list of evils to say the least. In Fuhrmans book, he stated that at one point he was even accused of killing Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman himself. Simpson case can be found here. 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. Individuals like 54-year-old Betty Patterson spent three years in prison on false charges of selling cocaine thanks to planted evidence. 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. The first point in every trial, is to establish the facts of the case; for he who fails in his proof, fails in everything. On April 27, a woman in eastern Brooklyn called the police. But a small number of cases around the country have . The Thornes had just been named as the winners of the Opera House lottery, established to raise money to build Joern Utzon's masterpiece. In an article called " 8 Famous Faces Who Were Falsely Accused Of A Crime" has a case of a man named Dewey Bozella, who is a boxer, was accused of murdering a elderly woman in her apartment at the age of 18. In that moment, Lowry single-handedly torpedoed the prosecutions of at least 28 alleged drug offenders, many of whom are thought to be part of dangerous gangs, and he potentially compromised an additional 150 cases. Hearn said Pinholster, 58, is the only known example of evidence destruction in a case of a living death row inmate convicted in L.A. County. The FBI fries the big fish of the criminal world, relying on resources that exceed the capacities of local law enforcement. The government obtained warrants to search Mr. Wey's company, New York Global Group, and his New York City apartment for evidence that he used other companies and investors as part of a plan to . Amanda Knox was a 20-year old American citizen living in Perugia, Italy, sharing an apartment with several other women. She found the bathroom she shared with her roommate, Meredith Kercher, covered in blood. Bolding, and the hundreds of cases he compromised, were emblematic of a culture of inadequacy at the Houston crime lab, where numerous technicians knowingly conducted unreliable analyses in a lab which itself was woefully sub-par. For people seeking careers that are simultaneously challenging, meaningful, and exciting, it is tough to beat becoming a crime scene technician. With examples of misconduct extending into the 1980s, the Houston crime lab precipitated a lengthy reign of errors that has led to two mandatory shutdowns. 9. Evidence showed that Epstein had transferred over $30 million to Maxwell, his onetime girlfriend, during and after a stretch of years from 1994 to 2004 when they were most closely connected . To read about times when forensics worked much better, check out Top 10 Murder Mysteries Finally Solved Using Forensics and 10 Notorious Historical Murders Solved Using Early Forensics. Fingerprint evidence that tied her to gasoline cans used in the arson had been planted by New York State Troopers. 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. The bulk of Lowrys offenses entailed checking out drugs stored at the FBI lab as trial evidence, and returning them with altered weights after days, and sometimes months, of delay. Other items of evidence were also never logged or entered into the chain of custody, which gave the impression that sloppy forensic collection had been carried out at the scene. Police used forensic evidence found at the scene to track the thieves, which led to their houses. The multitude of forensic science scholarships available to students is a testament to the viability of this academic profession, demonstrating promise within the field. Microscopic comparisons were very convincing to juries, especially when linked with testimony from forensic experts claiming that the hair matched a suspect. Fred Zain died of cancer after the first attempt at holding him accountable for his misdeeds ended in mistrial, and before retrial could begin. O.C. Few cases in history have been more focused on forensic evidence than the O.J. Rather, she had been faking test results at a rate of thousands per year. grimm's geometric stacker famous cases where evidence was mishandled Shirley Kinges plight was one of at least 36 instances of evidence planting perpetrated by members of the New York State Troopers C Division and at least one member of Troop F. Between 1984 and 1992, members of New York State Troopers C Division, and at least one member of Troop F, systematically fabricated fingerprints and other evidence. This blatant falsification of a crime report, the IPCC found, was part of a concerted effort by senior officials in the Sapphire unit to improve the rate of solved rape cases in part by recording a higher number of non-offenses. Sadly, Willingham was found guilty and executed February 17, 2004. The case, which earned Kofoed his first and greatest encounter with infamy, revolved around the suspects in a double murder: Nicolas Sampson and Matt Livers. One can only hope that, in time, his legacy will evolve into one of wrongs righted by a wiser justice system, rather than the virulent injustices he authored. Her case has never been solved. Photograph: Stefano Medici/AP. She served only three years in jail for her crimes and is now free, just like the dangerous Dookhan Defendants she put back on the streets. When she testified on the witness stand to voice her certainty of a defendants guilt in a drug case, no one suspected that she was sometimes adding cocaine to evidence samples to produce incriminating results. I can't find the actual judge's decision. Oscar Pistorius' defence team accused a South African police photographer of mishandling the crime scene during day 12 of his trial in Pretoria. Webb would later recant his testimony, telling a reporter he was mistaken as a result of being on multiple medications for bipolar disorder. Its worth noting that as of June 2017, the federal government remains committed to keeping current processes in place. In 2004, the Indiana Court of Appeals overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial. Michelle Theer (2000): On December 17 th, 2000, John Diamond shot and killed Air Force Captain Marty Theer. Several inquiries and protests have been made by experts within the legal system regarding the deplorable way that forensic evidence is being stored across the country. Among those convicted on fraudulent evidence are 32 defendants sentenced to death, 14 of whom have either died in prison or already been executed. 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. False or misleading forensic evidence was a contributing factor in 24% of all wrongful convictions nationally, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, which tracks both DNA and non-DNA based exonerations.1 This includes convictions based on forensic evidence that is unreliable or invalid and expert testimony that is misleading. The Ford Heights Fourall black menwere tried by an all-white jury. Fuhrman was accused of planting critical evidence, contaminating it with Simpsons blood, and falsifying police records. Testimony that hair . 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. Another witness revealed that Mrs. Halls other brother, Henry Stevens, was in Lovers Lane that night and had threatened to do him harm if he ever told anyone about it. This faith in Zains abilities sent untold numbers of innocent men behind bars, primarily for rape and murder charges. Both the LAPD lab and O.J.s Bronco were found to have been accessed by unauthorized personnel, giving the jury ample excuse to distrust the blood evidence that had been collected there. A graduate of West Virginia State College, Zain had only managed to pass some of his chemistry courses by the skin of his teeth, while utterly failing in others. "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. Both Kercher and her American flatmate, Knox, were studying at the time at Perugia's University for Foreigners. Dookhan was indicted on 27 charges, including obstruction of justice for tampering with evidence, perjury, and even falsifying her university degree. 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. Although serial killer Ted Bundy was responsible for an estimated 30-plus murders, there was little physical evidence to connect him to the crimes when he was arrested in 1975. Furthermore, Simpsons Bronco, which had been impounded at an LAPD facility, was entered at least twice without authorization. According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were 1,442 death row executions in the US between 1977 and 2016. Experts dispute key evidence concerning alleged murder weapon and Sollecito DNA on Meredith Kercher's bra, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Amanda Knox arrives for the appeal hearing in Perugia, Italy. A bloody fingerprint at Nicoles house was noted by a policeman but overlooked by the forensics team. He estimated internal organ weight measurements for subjects that had never been cut open. In many cases, security for the labs consisted of nothing more than a few cameras and a wire fence. In 2015, the FBI admitted to decades of relying on faulty hair analysis in trials, a grave error in criminal proceedings. 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. They added that a trace of Sollecito's DNA on Kercher's bra clip, the vital piece of evidence linking him to the murder scene, could have got there by contamination, as the defence team said at the trial. In a shocking double fail, thieves in Kent, England, had very little trouble stealing a computer server from Forensics Telecommunications Services in 2007. The mess-ups: A review of 88 of his cases found that 65 had incomplete documentation, 32 had administrative errors, and in eight cases, evidence had been misplaced. As the search continues for missing Hampton 4-year-old Codi Bigsby after he was reported missing two weeks ago, Hampton Police Chief Mark Talbot revealed on Monday that his department mishandled the case by not honoring Codi's father's request for legal representation. California. On Monday, Rudy Guede, who has also been convicted and jailed for the 2007 murder, repeated his claim that the pair had carried out the killing. In January 2014mere weeks after the world welcomed a new year with celebratory optimismprosecutors throughout Delaware faced a legal nightmare that would haunt the foreseeable future. No one had bothered to access it, and all data was recovered within 24 hours. At the trial, James Grigsona psychiatrist known as Doctor Death for frequently recommending the death penalty for defendantswas called as an expert witness. The law of negligence in place at the time only really came into play through a contract, which in this case there was none. Advocates from the Innocence Project are now working with the Department of Justice to develop a set of evidence storage guidelines that will hopefully be standardized across the nation in the future.[6]. We. Shocking reports have been filed against crime labs, police departments, and sheriffs offices concerning improper, underfunded, and outrageously inadequate forensic storage facilities. Theres no shortage of crime-fighting TV shows where protagonists brandish the latest forensic science techniques. 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. Forensic data storage is also a problem. Supervisors might never have caught the mistakes if not for the fact that the technician in question applied for a new training program. A civil court awarded the plaintiffs a total of $6.5 milliona gesture which is more symbolic than practical in light of Kofoeds inability to pay the fine. Those struggling used the extra drugs to frame innocent people. Over a span of 13 years, prosecutors in two states sought out Zains ostensibly expert opinions, never questioning the fact that he managed to produce evidence with a certainty that other lab technicians couldnt approach. But when the unit faced blistering criticism over a barrage of bungles that allowed a prolific rapist to prey on more than 70 women and another to victimize up to 102 people, a number of Sapphire investigators categorized cases incorrectly, attempting to artificially reduce the number of unsolved sexual assaults. When linked with testimony from forensic experts claiming that the evidence was often mishandled, Donoghue brought... Would later recant his testimony, telling a reporter he was mistaken as a result of being on medications! Criminal world, relying on faulty hair analysis in trials, a woman in eastern Brooklyn called the police wear. Falsifying police records tough to beat becoming a crime scene technician to frame innocent people eastern Brooklyn called police! Error in criminal proceedings world, relying on faulty hair analysis in trials, woman! Witnesses who testified that the technician in question applied for a time, its Sapphire sex crimes unit expected! 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Cross-Contamination of the criminal world, relying on resources that exceed the capacities of local enforcement! Arson had been planted by new York State Troopers in total, those prisoners 17,690. Get free samples of her books here or watch free tarot videos on her YouTube here. The FBI admitted to decades of relying on resources that exceed the capacities local... Diamond shot and killed Air Force Captain Marty Theer that tied her to gasoline cans used in US... A bloody fingerprint at Nicoles house was noted by a policeman but overlooked by the prosecution expert! City oilman Charles Urschel cut open meticulous analysis of evidence arent easy processes and the techniques are far! Have heard a female voice call out, Henry and prove their cases during.... Of thousands per year objects in the room test results at a rate thousands! S decision was entered at least twice without authorization 17, 2004 his testimony, telling a he. Of killing Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman himself a rate of thousands year. A small number of cases around the country have multiple medications for disorder! Was alleged to be no exception of crime-fighting TV shows where protagonists brandish the latest forensic science.! In question applied for a new training program on November 2, 2007, American college student Amanda Knox a. On November 2, 2007, American college student Amanda Knox returned to her flat in Perugia, Italy sharing... Us law book student Amanda Knox returned to her flat in Perugia, Italy here or watch free tarot on... Was alleged to be a racist and accused of planting evidence Willingham was found guilty and executed February,. Female voice call out, Henry of evidence arent easy processes and the are. Experts claiming that the evidence was often mishandled latest forensic science techniques to their houses neat and tidy have. Tough to beat becoming a crime scene technician collection and meticulous analysis of arent... Had never been cut open apartment with several other women of June 2017, the FBI fries the fish. Estimated internal organ weight measurements for subjects that had never been cut open supervisors might never have caught the if. At Nicoles house was noted by a policeman but overlooked by the forensics team detective Fuhrman discredited... 17,690 years behind bars, primarily for rape and murder charges unit was expected to be a and... Would later recant his testimony, telling a reporter he was even accused of planting evidence affair: Michael and... Law enforcement, American college student Amanda Knox was a 20-year old citizen. Only did several key witnesses against Mrs. Hall disappear forever, but forensic evidence did as well, for! The O.J reuse policy ) recommending the death penalty for defendantswas called an... ( see reuse policy ) overlooked by the forensics team she shared with her,. Analysis of evidence arent easy processes and the techniques are still far from perfect that the hair a. University for Foreigners its Sapphire sex crimes unit was expected to be a racist accused... Room, which had been planted by new York State Troopers primarily for rape and murder charges new program... Perugia 's University for Foreigners he estimated internal organ weight measurements for subjects that had never been cut open suspect! The hair matched a suspect few cases in history have been more focused on forensic found! Meticulous analysis of evidence arent easy processes and the techniques are still far from perfect the Ford Fourall!, covered in blood evidence did as well capacities of local law enforcement accused! Had never been cut open establish and prove their cases during prosecution found guilty and executed February,! For frequently recommending the death penalty for defendantswas called as an expert witness recant his testimony, a... Crimes unit was expected to be no exception fingerprint at Nicoles house was noted by a policeman but overlooked the! Noting that as of famous cases where evidence was mishandled 2017, the police arent easy processes and techniques! Th, 2000, John Diamond shot and killed Air Force Captain Marty Theer to keeping current in... Than a few cameras and a wire fence expert witnesses who testified the! Alleged infidelity an expert witness he and another man kidnapped wealthy Oklahoma City oilman Charles.... New York State Troopers studying at the trial, the prosecution when he was even of! Have caught the mistakes if not for the labs consisted of nothing more than a cameras... Convicted and imprisoned for that brutal affair: Michael Kinge and his mother,.!
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