Page 2 - ஹூஸ்டன் தடயவியல் அறிவியல் மையம் News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana
HPD: Narcotics suspect taken to hospital, dies after struggle with officers
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After Scathing Letter and Retirement, HFSC Picks New Director
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In the latest twist in the protracted Massachusetts drug lab scandal, it was reported earlier this year that District Attorney Rachael Rollins had ordered a new inquiry into more than 74,000 cases. The scale of the audit is unprecedented, even as more than 20,000 criminal convictions have
already been reversed, at a cost of about $30 million.
Such systemic problems are the entirely predictable result of inadequate resources at crime labs nationwide. Amid a national conversation over where to best allocate law enforcement dollars, we call for a critical look at redirecting funding to other agencies in the criminal justice system that are often forgotten and overlooked namely, crime labs. Critically, those labs must have sound quality control and adequate resources and must be independent of law enforcement.
“Concentrate on what cannot lie: the evidence.”
With that simple statement in the pilot episode of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” lead character Gil Grissom voices perhaps the greatest myth about forensic science: its certainty.
Since 1989, bad forensic science has contributed to as many as a quarter of the 2,700-plus exonerations nationwide. Tens of thousands of cases have been found to be tainted by faulty forensic analysis or testimony.
The Houston Police Department had one such lab – consumed by years of mismanagement, neglect, and corruption – out of which grew the Houston Forensic Science Center. It has now become a model of reform. Its leader, Peter Stout – a toxicologist who is an unashamed nerd in a macabre high-tech toy store – sees forensic science as a civilizing force that offers “a just result . something that actually is fair, evenhanded, and reflects, as close as you can understand, the actual truth.”
Crime lab in Texas reinvents how evidence is gathered
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