A gov­ern­ment-ordered audit of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation found that the agency false­ly report­ed blood evi­dence in dozens of cas­es, includ­ing three that end­ed in exe­cu­tions. The inquiry, ordered by Attorney General Roy Cooper, found that SBI agents improp­er­ly aid­ed pros­e­cu­tors for over a 16-year peri­od, call­ing into ques­tion con­vic­tions in 230 crim­i­nal cas­es. Duane Deaver, a vet­er­an SBI ana­lyst who per­formed the work in five par­tic­u­lar­ly trou­bling cas­es, has been sus­pend­ed pend­ing fur­ther inves­ti­ga­tion. According to the audit, SBI lab reports omit­ted or over­stat­ed impor­tant infor­ma­tion about test results that would have been favor­able to the defense. The report blames the flaws on ​“poor­ly craft­ed pol­i­cy, inat­ten­tion to report­ing meth­ods which per­mit­ted too much ana­lyst sub­jec­tiv­i­ty; and inef­fec­tive man­age­ment and over­sight.” The state Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that lab notes are evi­dence that should be made avail­able to the defense. According to the report, how­ev­er, ​“that did not hap­pen for sev­er­al rea­sons, includ­ing a mind­set, led by a sec­tion chief, that the lab’s main cus­tomer was law enforce­ment.” North Carolina’s News & Observer just com­plet­ed a four-part inves­tiga­tive series into the SBI enti­tled ​“Agents’ Secrets: Junk Science, Tainted Testimony at SBI.”

(M. Locke, J. Neff and A. Curliss, ​“Under fire, SBI blood ana­ly­ist sus­pend­ed,” Charlotte News & Observer, August 18, 2010). See Arbitrariness and Studies.

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