Replies

FBI's DNA lab subject of probe into practices
'Gold standard' for assessing guilt 'tarnished' by failure to follow standard procedures
By John Solomon
Associated Press

Monday, April 28, 2003 - WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department's inspector general has broadened an investi-gation, originally limited to alleged wrongdoing by a forensic technician, to look at the practices of the FBI lab unit that analyzes DNA in hundreds of crime cases a year, government officials say.

The inquiry, expected to last several more months, already has led to changes inside the lab's DNA unit in response to advice from outside scientists brought in by Justice investigators, the officials told Associated Press.

The inspector general, an independent watchdog within the Justice Department, is trying to identify shortcomings in the lab after an FBI technician went undetected for two years as she failed to follow required procedure in analyzing DNA evidence, the officials said.

DNA evidence has become increasingly important in criminal cases and in appeals from old convictions before DNA evidence was widely used.

The investigation, coupled with recent revelations of DNA irregularities in a few local crime labs that work with the FBI, could affect Attorney General John Ashcroft's high-profile project to create a national DNA database to help law enforcers identify crime suspects through their genetic fingerprints.

Criminal defense lawyers are planning challenges to the database and to DNA evidence in cases involving the one FBI lab technician or the local crime labs accused of wrongdoing.

"All of us are depending on DNA as a gold standard in forensics work -- innocence projects, prosecutors and defense lawyers. And now we don't have a gold standard. The gold has been tarnished," said Frederic Whitehurst, a lawyer and former FBI lab employee whose whistle-blower allegations led to major changes in the FBI lab in the mid-1990s.

Government officials, spea-king on condition of anonymity, said the goal of the current investigation is to identify vulnerabilities in lab procedure that could affect the quality of the FBI's DNA analyses or permit a rogue employee from going undetected.

FBI Lab Director Dwight Adams, himself a DNA scientist, disclosed the existence of the wider Justice Department inquiry during recent briefings on Capitol Hill, according to law enforcement and congressional officials. Adams told lawmakers and their staffs the DNA section has put changes in place to deal with issues raised by the outside scientists brought in by the inspector general, the officials said. **We want correct and unassailable results and objective testimony, and to do that we've got to be open to outside scrutiny and outside review,** Adams told the AP.

The investigation is the broadest inspector general's review of the FBI lab since one in 1997 concluded that scientists in the lab's explosive units engaged in bad science and gave inaccurate testimony. Those findings led to an overhaul of the world-renowned forensics facility.

AP reported this month that FBI lab technician Jacquelyn Blake recently resigned while under investigation for failing to follow required scientific procedures while analyzing 103 DNA samples over the past couple of years, and a second lab employee was indicted for false testimony. Government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Inspector General Glenn Fine expanded the Blake inquiry to examine the FBI lab's broader practices in DNA cases. The FBI has been cooperating, officials said.

FBI officials also are facing questions about how to protect the bureau's national DNA database from a growing number of problems at local police crime labs.

The police lab in Houston is under grand jury investigation for its DNA work. A police lab in Fort Worth, Texas, is facing a criminal inquiry after revelations that a senior forensic analysts ignored proper DNA procedures. Florida is grappling with a state crime lab worker in Orlando who falsified DNA data.

FBI officials have pulled DNA samples from the Houston lab from its national database and said they will examine the allegations involving Fort Worth and Orlando to determine if any action is required to protect the national DNA registry.

The inspector general has been trying to push the FBI lab for regular audits of state and local labs that put DNA evidence into the national registry. An audit in 2001 disclosed half the local labs examined were not in compliance with FBI DNA standards.

"No such audits of the DNA profiles in CODIS (the Combined DNA Index System) were being conducted at any level," the inspector general warned the FBI.

"The FBI needs to improve its oversight ... to ensure the laboratories are in compliance with the act, the FBI's quality assurance standards and the FBI requirements for laboratories participating in the national index," investigators warned.