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Subscribe to RSSThe Justice Department is going through thousands of cases from the days before DNA testing to see whether the government exaggerated the significance of the FBI's hair analysis. The FBI insists the science is sound. NBC's Pete Williams reports.
www.whistleblowersblog.org
Frederic Whitehurst in an undated photo.
Updated at 9:51 p.m. ET: Months after the Washington Post revealed that lab technicians at the FBI possibly exaggerated evidence, resulting in at least three wrongful convictions, the Department of Justice has announced it will review thousands of old cases.
The review, the largest in U.S. history, will focus on work by FBI Laboratory hair and fiber examiners since at least 1985, the Post reported.
In April, the Post wrote about two men who were convicted largely because of contaminated FBI hair analysis. A review of the evidence has since resulted in the release of both men.
A reporter at the Post had been working on a story about Donald Gates, a D.C. man released after DNA evidence proved his innocence, when he learned about Frederic Whitehurst, an FBI lab chemist who blew the whistle on the FBI Laboratory in the mid-1990s. Whitehurst said he watched colleagues contaminate evidence and, in court, overstate the significance of their matches.
“There was a lackadaisical attitude,” Whitehurst said.
When Whitehurst, a chemist with a doctoral degree from Duke, arrived at the FBI crime lab in 1986, the first thing he noticed was that the place was, as he called it, a pigsty. The equipment was outdated and there was a film of black soot coating the counters – a dust from the vents that the agents called “black rain.”
It surprised him, too, he said, that outsiders were allowed to tour the lab, which he said should have been a controlled environment.
When he raised these issues, a coworker told him, “Before you embarrass the FBI in a court of law, you’ll perjure yourself. We all do it.”
After the first World Trade Center bombing, Whitehurst testified that supervisors pressured him to concoct misleading scientific reports. When he refused to testify that a urea nitrate bomb had been the source of the explosion, the FBI found another lab technician to testify.
Over the years, Whitehurst said, he brought in almost-new equipment that had been turned over by the National Institutes of Health. He implemented protocols, because there hadn’t been any when he arrived.
NBC San Diego video: Thousands of cases under review
But other problems arose, Whitehurst told msnbc.com. He learned that an agent had, for the previous nine years, rewritten his scientific reports to support the prosecution. When he complained, he said he was told the agent hadn’t done anything wrong.
“You get patted on the head if you’re the guy who saves the case,” Whitehurst said, explaining why agents would provide misleading information. “They get promoted; they’re the guys everyone crowds around. It’s a very tight family. A scientist who asks a question and doesn’t go along, he gets isolated.”
Corrupt lab technicians remained employed even after Whitehurst started speaking out about the lab, said David Colapinto, general counsel for the National Whistleblowers Center.
In 1995, Whitehurst told Larry King on CNN, “I dislike being called a whistleblower, I’m a law enforcement officer and if I see violations of the law abuses of authority corruption. I’m required to report those.”
As an agent, Whitehurst wrote 237 letters to the Inspector General, complaining about the lab. The longest was 640 pages.
“The pressure was so crazy that every so often, I’d just break down and cry,” he said.
Sarah Fox, Occupy Wall Street link could be due to lab error
The Justice Department ultimately did review thousands of cases in response to Whitehurst's reports, Colapinto said, but he said the task force assigned to investigate operated in secret and the findings were not published. Rather, Colapinto said, prosecutors who had originally tried those old cases decided whether the new evidence should be disclosed to the defense.
Dissatisfied with the Justice Department’s review, Whitehurst requested the task force's findings through the Freedom of Information Act. Over several years, he received tens of thousands of pages.
Some changes were made, however. The FBI moved its lab from the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover building in Washington, D.C. to a separate building in Quantico, Va.
The National Academy of Sciences recently pushed for further independence, however. The organization, made up of elite scientists from around the U.S., recommended the creation of an independent federal agency to review evidence. That agency, ideally, should not be connected to the academic community, the scientists said.
Whitehurst, now a forensic consultant and a criminal defense lawyer in North Carolina, and the National Whistleblowers Center worked with the Post for a year on the expose that came out in April. That story apparently pushed the Justice Department to conduct another, more transparent review of old evidence.
The Justice Department says that this time, the review will include outsiders such as the Innocence Project, according to The Associated Press. The Innocence Project, which focuses on exonerating the wrongfully convicted, would watch over the government’s review.
The FBI did not respond to request for comment.
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Wait, everyone, why not let the Supreme Court just rule everybody innocent and be done with it? Since it is protected under free speech to lie about military awards and piss on the graves of soldiers as they are being laid to rest, etc.
Paul- this is about people who may have been wrongfully convicted. This isn't about free speech dude. This is about abuses in the criminal justice system. You have the right argument in the wrong place.
Hey, I am clean, wash my hands regularly, even clean my nails, however I need 5X glasses. Maybe I could get a job at the Lab.
Better yetta, maybe I cud getta jobie at MSNDC proofreding.
3 wrongful convictions out of THOUSANDS of cases leads to this "investigation" of back cases. 1 wrongful conviction is just plain absurd by the FBI which is supposed to be the SUPREME law enforcement department in the United States. Wait a minute, maybe I am wrong and it is the DOJ who is SUPREME. Guess I had better ask Mr. Holder about that.
ldo
Hmmm.... wow, let's see if we can hold the FBI to the HIGHEST Standard in the entire world and forget that its run by human beings. Human beings that make mistakes.... OH no, the sky is falling if one mistake is ever made..
P.S. There were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq... ooops.. someone made a mistake!
Three wrongful convictions via DNA evidence out of the same lab. Three that we know of anyway. So, lets see.... The FBI can submit evidence that leads to the wrongful conviction of innocent people and its okay because they are human and humans make mistakes. But someone who commits a crime is trash because as a human he/she shouldn't have made a mistake. Wow- thats one of the biggest double standards I have ever seen.
We should make it madantory that people read the article before commenting.
I was always told the data is analyzed then verified guess they lied...
ha @breadex agreed. looks like most people grab the first sentance under the article and rush to give their look at me two cents of judgment.
I hope this doesnt turn out like the death row audit of cases of Texas inmates, maybe one of the only times you double think the death penalty.
People are assumed innocent until proven guilty. However, if the prosecution use illegal or false evidence to help their prosecution, then the prosecution really don't have a case! Guilty? Really if one has to falsify evidence for a conviction???
If it requires the Suprior Court or Supreme Court to rule everyone innocent, then it is where it should be. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW. End does not justify the mean. It is about a just process.
Get on the web and look up the Innocence Project. You will be amazed at how many Innocent people are sent to prison for crimes that they did not commit. There are a lot of them. You had better pray to God that some cop, prosecuting attorney, or who ever, doesn't get there hands on you and accuse you of some thing that you did not do. It happens all over the USA.
An other one to look up on the web is Cop Block. They report illegal activity's buy cops who think that they are above the law and can do what ever they want because they have a badge.
...and not all cops are bad and yes they are necessary and yes I still respect most of them. There is a chosen few that I would not give the time of day to.
Thanks for pointing out the typo on the cover. We fixed it.
Review all of it, maybe it will free people from prison that are innocent. We have the technology to process the information quickly and accurately. Is there any one here that would like to rot in prison for something you didn't do?
Ironically, the 'Innocence Project' was co-founded by Barry Scheck, the attorney for O J Simpson who claimed that the strong DNA evidence against Simpson was 'unreliable', which ended up getting Simpson found not guilty of murdering his ex-wife and Ron Goldman in one of the blackest days in history for criminal justice.
Now Barry Scheck regularly uses this 'unreliable' DNA evidence to get wrongfully convicted people freed.
My, how things have changed.
But at any rate, I agree that anyone unjustly convicted deserves a truly fair hearing, and if evidence was contaminated, either willfully or by accident, the convicted person is entitled to a hearing to determine if that evidence warrants a new trial.
DNA tests for anyone who asks should be a given, contaminated evidence unacceptable.
On a brighter note: CONDI RICE FOR VP : ]
Its outrageous that American law enforcement cannot enforce the laws without breaking them.
I find it ironic that the FBI, the agency who always investigates local departments for corruption and abuses, is a huge offender itself!
Paul - what does the Supreme Court's ruling striking down the Stolen Valor Act have to do with corruption in the FBI lab resulting in innocent people getting wrongfully convicted?
Doubt anything less than LSD can make somebody see a "logical" connection between those two things :D
Terry from Illinois, there is a big difference between making an honest mistake in a lab and choosing to rob a bank or possess cocaine. What is scary is when they manufacture evidence.
I wonder what mistakes are being made now for future investigations.
Government agencies are populated by highly paid bureaucrats. Bureaucrats, being people, care mostly about themselves and their perks. Our president wants bureaucrats in charge of my health, do you wonder that I don't?
Liberals believe that regulation is the panacea for everything. In truth regulation is only one more layer of bureaucrats.
Whose bright idea was it to base promotion on lab techs convicting criminals? Any idiot can see that it's bound to fail
As if we don't already have more than sufficient evidence that the culture of the FBI is arrogance, chauvinism, closed minded, self serving and severely myopic egotism. This is a perfect character mix for filling prisons with inmates, but absolutely antithetical to a system of justice.
From the beginning under Herbert Hoover, in the guise of a crime fighting organization, the FBI has in reality been an instrument of political repression, and an enforcer of public policy. Guilt or innocence has never been a significant consideration in the performance of their mission. The objective has always been to obtain convictions at any cost in order to give the appearance of actually doing something to achieve the political schemes.
If this sounds suspiciously like a definition of the KGB, or any other secret investigative arm of the government in any other state, that is not entirely coincidental. Secrecy, and absence of oversight is fundamental to their operational existence. Their inherent belief and constant assertion is "We never make mistakes."
Ha.
MSNBC covers this but ignores the release of the FBI investigators report that says George Zimmerman is not racist because it does not fit their agenda of division and racial pandering.
Pathetic as usual.
pjam09......
But that is exactly what the Kangaroo Court decided from day one......he was racist, he killed an innocent person, and he should be incarcerated immediately.
Sure didn't help when Mr. Obama stepped up to the plate making comments before getting the facts of the case (which continues to slowly surface). However, his speech sure stirred the racist pot which was probably the intent.
Amazing that other media outlets are providing significant articles on the economy and International issues, while MSNBC is completely focused on the NAACP Boooooing.
You can't fix a law enforcement entity which is systemically broken. You need to completely clean house and start over. And the replacement needs completely new management and oversight, and total independence, with sound forensic science being the sole charge, regardless of the findings in individual cases.
The prosecutors and defense attorneys in cases submitted to the FBI lab should have no direct means of communication with anyone associated with the lab, and no means whatsoever of pressuring for results which favor the case. The science should lead, the lawyers should follow.
The only way to preserve judges' and jurors' confidence in forensic evidence presented at trials is to ensure the science is conducted in a manner which is beyond question.
We thought the Hoover era ended.....Jesus H........!
While they are at it they should look into crooked prosecutors who lied about and suppressed evidence in order to make a conviction and make themselves look better to the public when they would run for a political seat. Seems the innocence project has found many of them and they should have to serve time in the state pens with hard criminals.
I agree, Dave. And it is only a matter of time before The Innocence Project is going to show definitively that some innocent person has been put to death due to evidence manipulated by the prosecution.
When that day comes, Americans are going to have to wrestle with the real meaning of 'premeditated murder' ... committed in our name.
Marv Leit wrote:
Under Herbert Hoover?????
Rob,
I am for the death penalty but only if it has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.....Like credible eyewitnesses who saw it happen or if the evidence is absolutely 100% indisputable. With that said I also think that if the prosecution does anything underhanded and it is proven such, then they should face twice that of the same punishment, no ifs, ands, or buts, period. Now some of you may want to argue that "they wouldn't be able to find anyone to fill those positions" and to that I say yes they will and they will be completely honest and uninfluenced by power, money and greed. It seems to be the only way to clean up our judicial system. Also a law should be enacted that the prosecutors cannot run for any politicle office or a higher seat without leaving their current position for a period of 1 term first and go back to the private sector for that time.
Mishandling or deliberate corruption? Does this mean that those responsible for this 'mishandling' will now end up in jail as well? Or, are We the People going to settle this by paying some more?
I want to know why they didn't charge some former FBI personnel with perjury, falsifying evidence, and obstruction of justice.
Sarah Fox, Occupy Wall Street link could be due to lab error
So, do you get comfort with the way thing are going now? Just think about it - some pencil-necked geek sitting in his cubical - has a job to make sure that the Health insurer, pays the least amount of money, provides the least amount of care that they can get away with. If there is any doubt about whether you deserve that heart transplant or that $100 a dose pill (or they can get away with the generic version, a whole different formula, which is only perscribed it sub-sahran Africa). You feel that they will make the exception for you - after looking over the records of the last 20-30 years they Never allowed one of their carriers to do what the Doctor requested?
I can see where you would trust the Health care insureres over Obama care.
I'm not surprised. Humans are hardwired to fudge data.
Why not empty all the prisons, and lay off the criminal justice employees? Then we will not have to pay for millions of investigations. What could go wrong with that. Maybe we could balance the budget that Obama never got around to passing.
Dasvet, so it's cheaper to leave innocent people in jail rather than doing a proper investigation the first time? Interesting...
My plan, no one goes to jail. Just arm everyone and let the biggest bullet win.
Not just that Darren, but didn'tyou find it interesting how Dasvet just had to take a dig at the POTUS?
Joe Veteran, yeah Dasvet is just another whiner. We should call him a waaaaambulance...
I hope you really don't believe that Joe?
Funny - thing we tried that. Everyone had a gun - the honest folks were robbed by mobs of bad guys. Killed by bad guys... Honest folk are ill-equipped to go one on one against bad guys.
The trick is - the bad guys will not fight fair.... ever. So yes, we had a few Lone Ranger types taking care of the bad guys. Sooner or later he got stabbed in the back by a paid off, Good guy - who was unhappy because his theiving son was caught, and hanged. See we all want strict law ... as long as its the "other guy" getting hung. When it comes to me and my family... cut us some slack, they were only playing, they didn't mean anything about it. Can't we sweep it under the rug... this time, too?
When you purposly lie in court to convict when you know that evidence has been contaminated, deserves nothing other than the death penalty on an instant basis, no trial, no nothing you criminal liars need to die for your crimes. which include causing pain and suffering to all of those people who are in jail falsley due to the outright lies perpetrated by these crooks. This is nothing other than live murder commited by fbi agents. they deserve nothing ohter than to be tied to a truck and drug through town by the neck until dead.
I have to jump in here..The Federal Bureau of Investigation...FBI hummmm
NOW TELL ME, Do you really want the FEDS to take care of your HEALTH CARE....lmao
NOT ME..
Exactly how did you tie healthcare into an article about fraud in the FBI lab?
As dynamic, diligent defene attorney Jose Baez demonstrated during the Casey Anthony trial, much of so-called "forensic science" is nothing but junk & bunk
Works great on tv in real life another story....
Said all the defense lawyers, and the inmates.
Dasvet....should you ever get accusedof committing a crime that you didn't have anything to do with and are facing hard time for it just stand up in court and repeat that comment of yours.
Glad to do it. Defense lawyers and inmates never lie. I have found very few of either who ever admitted they committed a crime.
Dasvet, if you are not a prosecutor then you are one of them corrupt cops who fudge evidence to convict innocent people. It is not a joke boy. To spend one day behind bars for something you did not do is a CRIME. And who declared you God to proclaim all those in jail are criminals? There are many innocent people in jail who die without a chance to prove their innocence because of people like you who refuse to believe there are innocent people in jail. Tell you what, I hope it happens to you or to a family member.
@Santa Clara County is corrupt
Your last line is a bit harsh and I wouldn't want it to happen to anyone but I do understand where you are coming from. Just don't wish it to happen to anyone, not even dasvet or one of his family members even if he is an idiot.
You got the focus wrong. The question and the statement we need to believe in, is whether the Prosecution and the Police ever lied?
The courts are charged with the accepting the statements of Police, prosecution and verified lab reports as being "True" within the limits of laws as the stand today. If you can not trust the motives and sworn statements of the State - then the adversarial contest of courts in an effort to arrive at truth, is unfair. The Defendant is already at a minimum of 49% vs 51% handicap - when it comes to who the courts believe.
The penal system is geared to trust that anyone incarcerated is factually guilty! This means that even if an inmate is innocent and continues to fight his case on appeals or any other method available to him. He will likely as not spend more time in jail, get harsher treatment, because he will not admit his guilt or go into a program to help him understand why he committed the crime. Parole is totally out as an alternative... because the parole hearing is weighted toward those who confess their crimes. No confession - then, no early release! The longer you stay in prison, the more likely you are to commit a crime - for self protection if nothing else. When it comes to jail, if you are no use to the criminals - then you are a threat to them. Same with the guards - they need snitches to keep them informed. So, one way or the other - you get drafted.
I welcome the investigation. We have the largest % of our population incarcerated than any country in the world. Something should be done to clean up the sloppy work by the cops.
Maybe they are getting jailed for stupid reasons. Such as marijuana involvement.
just read a similar story about the lapd and sheriff dept here in los angles. cops always telling lies and the DA and judges know this is going on.
Cops lie. It is what they do (along with planting evidence, and beating and killing people, of course). Never trust a cop. They are nothing but armed thugs with badges. The only things lower are lawyers, judges, and politicians. The true scum of the Earth.
There are good honest cops of course, but they are treated as if they are some kind of a disease and their bosses don't want to deal with them or assign them cases.
Let the investigations begin. It begets something much closer to the truth than what we've been fed as fact in the past.
So much for the argument that DNA doesnt lie. Turns out, it does.
No... the point is that the DNA doesn't lie, but the testing of it can be erroneous in itself and the results fudged to fit a predetermined result.
Not to mention some lazy-ass federal employee is too occupied to do their job. WTH, you cannot fire them, so no incentive to do their job correctly.
Too occupied with what? That comment made no sense whatsoever...it was just a partisan cartoon from a person who hates government in general but can't say specifically why. Useless prattle.
DNA doesn't lie. The people who evaluate the evidence sometimes do to please their superiors. Read the article.
"The agency will focus on work by FBI Labratory hair and fiber examiners since at least 1985, the largest revew in U.S. history."
Looks like someone from MSNBC went to the "Derek Zoolander School For Kids Who Can't Read Good" and so did all the editors... two blatantly misspelled words in a headline on an international news site. Go MSNBC!
Does your furniture have doilies on the backs and arms? Do you align your cutlery "just so" at a table setting before you can eat? Is Monk your favorite TV program ever? Do you have a habit of posting irrelevant grammar and spelling criticisms that add nothing to the actual topic?
This is an organization that is supposed to be made up of journalists. Finding an article produced by the MSNBC Staff that doesn't contain spelling or grammar errors is rare. As an organization they should be embarrassed to publish such shoddy work.
Then write a letter to the appropriate people and register your disappointments and complaints. Better yet, go read news at some other online site. Why litter the article comment section with irrelevant posts that have nothing to do with the article content and wind up at least as annoying as the typos you revile? I'd say you were not doing your job as self-appointed critic very well and are probably just an MSNBC-hater plant.
Article content has nothing to do with sloppy work? "Adds nothing to the actual topic"
There's must be more misspelling than I realized. I thought I just read an article about sloppy work.
I tend to be more concerned about sloppiness that can send someone to a lengthy prison term or even death than, say, some typos in an article about it. But hey that's just me, I guess.
This is what you get when careers and pay are based on performance. I.E. convictions. You will not have real justice when the people involved benefit or are hurt based on the outcome. Thats why you get people looking the other way, or worse. Take the money of the justice system, and then you might get somewhere.
It's funny to me that when presented with cases like this and the DNA exoneration of innocent yet convicted and incarcerated individuals, most people will openly admit that there is something wrong with the criminal justice system YET when someone is charged, those same people automatically presume the individual is guilty. And many people plead guilty to lesser crimes because prosecutors threaten them with everything under the sun and the individual rarely has the money, power or prestige to fight it. Start throwing as much into public defender budgets as you do into prosecutors and investigators and it would be a whole new ballgame.
Right on Terri !
But the Repubs wouldn't think of doing anything so honest and fair . . . because it might cost a few dollars.
What's a few trillion dollars, one way or the other?
Robert, isn't it funny how repubs are against "government control" yet they have no problem with government throwing people in jail for something silly or something they did not do? and Davest, I hope you or a family member of yours gets arrested for something you or they did not do. That would really change all your attitude. and if you think you are immune because you work in law enforcement (if you do) think again.
Just bear in mind, whenever there is a wrongful conviction the person(s) who actually commited the crime is still on the street.
. . . and the prosecutor is GUILTY!
Another customer for these politically motivated prosecuters. Called the Nancy Grace syndrome that everyone is guilty because I have been a prosecuter for so long I can tell. I think I am starting to see a tear come out from under the blinfolded ladies blindfold. Just think we just made a statement that a corporation is a person we had the biggest ponzi scheme ever and not one banker has yet to go to jail etc etc etc
How about using the manpower and energy to investigate the criminal Investment Banking complex...which continues its criminal conduct as of the Libor rigging, etc?
Why? Because no Banker is in jail . . .but poor innocent people are convicted on bogus information and prosecutorial misconduct EVERY DAY, and no one cares - - except the Innocence Prohect.
Don't stop with the F.B.I.,how about the Attorney Generals office,the A.T.F.,the Secret Service and every major city and jurisdiction in the country,including cases where prosecutors withheld evidence to obtain a conviction,hold them liable,showing intent to falsely accuse and convict an innocent party,every federal attorneys office.
And who would you suggest investigate them? See the problem.?
Right, Dan: there's a really good chance of that happening!
A few well-publicized prosecutions of prosecutors will get the job done, at all levels of so-called "justice".
Breadex: No I don't see the problem. Are you suggesting we should continue to jail innocent people and ruin thousands of lives (families, etc.) because you "can't see" who would prosecute the lawbreakers. AKA prosecutors.
What about the lying Eric Holder?
And remember, Pump, that that person who committed the crime is on the street because of the wrongful conviction. Of course, that's a specious argument on my part, isn't it?
. . . also, you don't know that.
Terri from Illinois:
It is not just about them not having the resources to defend themselves,it is about federal public defenders that don't want to spare the time,energy or their own expenses to defend somebody,their client is not worth the basic stipend they get from the court,so they basically rubber stamp things thru the hearings,talking their clients in to believing them,like an assembly line.The judges go along with it for the expediency,to clear the docket,not all of them.
Public Defenders should get a $100,000 bonus for defeating an establishment prosecutor.
Just imagine how this would turn the whole problem around in 1 day!
Hi Dan. Please don't blame public or federal defenders. Let me elaborate... there is a thing called a statute of limitations. It is supposed to protect the citizen and the "victim" but in actuality it provides a cushion for a prosecutor. Lets say an alleged crime is committed and the SOL is five years. This means that investigators can spend five years gathering "evidence" against you. They can tap your phones, intercept your emails and text messages, look into your finances, etc. And you may never know they are doing it. Don't you think that at some point they can piece together whatever they want to make you appear guilty?
So, they arrest you. Now you have the constitutional right to a speedy trial. The courts want to push you through as fast as possible. You are appointed a defender. The defenders office receives a fraction of the funding and has typically has no investigator. Keep in mind that the prosecutor has at least one entire department or governmental branch doing almost all of their investigative work. A defender is not awarded the same.
Check out your local county or state budget, hell even look at the federal budget. Look at the budget for a prosecutors office and add in the investigator (police, sheriff, FBI, etc). Now compare it to the defenders budget.
The criminal justice system is slanted toward the prosecution of the citizen not into truly giving them a fair trial.
And to put the nail in the coffin, remember that most prosecutors (state and local) are elected and the biggest thing they campaign on is their conviction rate or how tough they are on crime.
I don't want prosecutors who are tough, I want prosecutors who are ethical, fair and are truly interested in serving ALL of the citizens.
It is sad when the people can't trust the FBI and local law enforcement. It is also sad that when they commit crimes against citizens, they can always find a jury that will refuse to convict them. I guess that's why they continue to do the things they do. There are no consequences. I have believed for quite some time, that if those biased idiots in California hadn't planted evidence in the O.J. Simpson case, he would have been easily convicted. One must be really dump to plant blood that has preservatives from the lab in it. Worse than that, the idiots planted a blood soaked glove that was at least three sizes too small to fit O.J's hand. I believe it was the corruption in law enforcement that allowed him to walk. I am convinced that many people have been incarcerated, and some executed, because they were framed by law enforcement. No wonder so many people are afraid of those who were employed to protect and serve the people.
I'm glad to see we have such a surplus in funds we can afford to do things twice and even three times. Get it right or find a new job as Romney would say. He might even say your fired if you do it right! Just because he likes to fire people that work for him.
Sounds to me like Obama's Justice Department is declaring war on the FBI.
Now that is one lame ass troll post there guy! Go out come back in try again. If you hear any more stupid sounds see a doctor quick
or it sounds like obama's administration is responding to verified news reports of problems, complaints from law enforcement officials, and recommendations from independent organizations.
This isn't an "Obama Issue" as the right-wing wants to make it: it's happening all over the Country, at every level and has for years. Our so-called "justice system" is a disgrace: that's why we have the highest % of our popuation in jail in the civilized world. . . at a hufge cost: we sacrifice shoold budgets to pay for "criminals". Dumb.
Keep Presidential politics out of an otherwise intelligent discussion.
We don't need the FBI, the IRS agents being hired will handle all of Obama's selected law enforcement.
I hope Isolde Raftery is pretty new to the job, because there are some glaring problems in her writing.
It makes me feel ill inside to think regular working class smows who were close by a crime sceen and was wrongfully accused and sent to prison because a lab tech was sloppy with his work is just sick. How do you make it right for those people. You can't give them back time. It makes me feel ill.
I haven't' always been on the right side of the law, As such I have witnessed more than 1 officer lie Under Oath to get a conviction. They know most people will lie to get out of trouble so why shouldn't they If they know you're guilty anyway. Anyone who has taken an Oath to uphold the law and to serve & protect people I hold to a much higher standard than i do other people. So in this case i say the person who made us aware that Laws were being broken was just doing what he swore an Oath to do. He proved to me there may still those who really do serve & protect
Being a whistle blower that was falsley imprisoned and got my case overturned by the supreme court in Oregon I can state that there will be no justice even when the innocent are released. No compensation, the cops the lawyers and the "experts" go free and suffer not for the suffering of the falsely imprisoned. The life of the victim and justice for them is forever changed. I just want all who read this to know that there is no justice there is just us, corruption is the law in the USA. How many wall street bankers in jail=0 wall street protesters beaten and under surveilance over 10,000 do the reasearch your self it is true. And now drones are in the USA being used on you. Wake up America I have lived it and I still fight for your rights. why? it is called honor
Finally, we can exonerate OJ for that murder of his wife and release Michael Jackson for that child molestation case.
God Damn I love this country and it's justice system.
Corruption, mistakes and they go after states when they want to help relieve the suffering with medicinal marijuana. States that protect themselves from illegal aliens. Shutting down legitimate internet sites and try to repress every move the every day citizen.
Aren't you glad that Northcom is now stationed in the US so they can continue the repression?
This man is a HERO for coming forward. This is not simply a man pointing out THREE errors out of thousands (millions?) of tests. This is a man who saw fellow employees FALSIFYING their results to match their errors, for whatever reasons. Great big difference folks! He is to be commended for his attempts to bring this out in the open. Good for you sir! I have been in law enforcement for 27 years and there DOES need to be a higher standard held to this profession, clearly for obvious reasons, as this article illustrates.
speechless, remember the lab workers are federal employees, who cannot be fired.