After an audit of Virginia’s Division of Forensic Science resulted in criticism of the crime laboratory’s procedures in testing DNA evidence, the state announced that it will now review the lab’s findings in 160 cases, including approximately 24 death penalty cases that hung on DNA evidence. Robert J. Humphreys, a Virginia Court of Appeals judge, is leading the review effort to examine cases that date from 1994. This marks the first time Virginia has volunteered to revisit findings in the cases of executed felons on a large scale.
In an earlier lab audit that prompted this most recent review, the American Society of Laboratory Directors criticized the crime lab’s role in the case of death row exoneree Earl Washington, Jr. The audit concluded that a chief lab scientist failed to follow proper procedure when testing a piece of evidence in Washington’s case. The report stated that the analysis of this evidence was wrong and that internal review of the testing failed to properly identify the errors made by the scientist. Washington spent 17 years on Virginia’s death row before DNA evidence confirmed his innocence and led to his pardon in 2000. Experts say that the review led by Humphrey’s team of six national forensics experts will determine whether Washington’s case was an isolated incident or an example of long-standing problems within the lab. The review team will not test or retest DNA evidence, but will determine whether scientists who handled the evidence followed proper procedures. Their work will take approximately eight weeks to complete.
David B. Albo, a member of the Virginia House Courts of Justice Committee and co-chairman of the Virginia State Crime Commission noted, “You need to have impeccable credentials to go into court. If they can’t show that tests were done properly, that hurts prosecuting crimes.”
(Washington Post, June 21, 2005 and Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 22, 2005) See Innocence.
