This is an update on the coup d'état of the (formerly) independent DC Forensics Lab by the US Attorney's office and the DC Mayor.
According to today’s Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com/... the DC Forensics Lab, now under the complete domination and control of the US Attorney’s office, will begin limited DNA testing (With the prosecutor’s girlfriend in charge, of course. See my previous blog on that subject here: www.dailykos.com/...).
Just to ensure that nothing is left to chance in providing the findings the prosecutor wants, the new Director (Jennifer Smith, lifelong prosecution expert witness and whose work was specifically cited in “Tainting Evidence; Inside the Scandals at the FBI Crime Lab” by JOHN F. KELLY and PHILLIP K. WEARNE) stated “ the lab will allow prosecutors and others to have direct access to analysts to check the status of testing. That direct access previously had been barred with the intent of insulating analysts from information that might bias their work before they issue their reports.” (According the the story in today’s Washington Post.) After all, the LAST thing we need in criminal justice is lab work that is unbiased by regular contact with police and prosecutors. She also said “that she realigned the lab internally to work more closely with law enforcement.”
It is interesting to note that the Post reporter, Spencer S. Hsu, had just recently reported on DC being ordered to pay over $13 million to a man wrongfully convicted due to the FBI crime lab giving false and overstated forensic testimony (www.washingtonpost.com/...). The changes the Mayor and prosecutor have brought to the formerly independent lab virtually ensure more wrongful convictions in the future. Unfortunately, only a few will be discovered and it will take decades to discover and correct them.
Spencer Hsu is listed as an “investigative” reporter by the Post. Perhaps it’s time for him to live up to that title.