GIST: "The investigation reviewed only a limited number of cases and focused on the work of only a few scientists. But there were indications that problems were far more widespread and could affect thousands of cases in federal, state and local courts, the Washington Post report, by Spencer Hsu, says. ‘‘... Hundreds of defendants remain in prison or on parole for offences that might merit exoneration, a retrial or retesting of evidence using DNA because FBI hair and fibre experts may have misidentified them as suspects. In one Texas case, Benjamin Herbert Boyle was executed in 1996, more than a year after the Justice Department began its review. Boyle would not have been eligible for the death penalty without the FBI’s flawed work, according to a prosecutor’s memo.’’ Hsu details a number other cases where there is now profound doubt about forensic evidence establishing guilt. He quotes Justice Department lawyers saying ‘‘they met their legal and constitutional obligations when they learned of specific errors, that they alerted prosecutors, and that they were not required to inform defendants directly’’. These are not cases where police and forensic examiners have necessarily decided to frame the innocent. They are, however, cases of manifest human frailty, where witnesses have let their sense of certainties overwhelm their capacity, competence and judgment. A witness in a white coat is, all too often, an advocate not a servant of the truth."

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