The discovery of 280 unopened and mislabeled boxes of evidence found in the Houston Crime Lab’s property room could impact as many as 8,000 cases, including many cases where defendants have sought evidence to prove their innocence. Investigators began sorting through the boxes this month, finding an array of evidence that ranged from a fetus and human body parts to clothes and a bag of Cheetos. Although the boxes were located nearly a year ago, the cataloging of their contents has just begun and could take up to a year to complete. Some of the evidence may be linked to the 379 cases in which prisoners convicted in Harris County have requested the retesting of DNA evidence to establish their innocence. If new evidence in these cases is found, prosecutors will have to go back to court and admit that some of the evidence previously determined to be lost or destroyed is available after all. District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal is now seeking a full-scale independent investigation of the lab, an action he had previously resisted. Houston Mayor Bill White noted, “It’s hard to get away from the fact that sloppiness in anything of this matter is inexcusable.” Barry Scheck of the New York City-based Innocence Project added, “This is in a league by itself…(it’s) unparalleled in the Houston police lab’s legacy of fraud, incompetence, and confusion.” The Crime Lab’s toxicology division, which tested DNA, blood and hair evidence, was shut down in January 2003 for poor work habits and inaccurate findings determined by an unskilled staff. The investigation of that department has led to at least one exoneration on the basis of DNA evidence retesting. (New York Times and Houston Chronicle, August 27, 2004). The discovery of this lost evidence is the latest development in an on-going investigation of the Houston Crime Lab and Police Department in Harris County, Texas, the nation’s leading jurisdiction in executions. See Innocence.