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Texas Innocence Project report discredits unscientific dog 'scent lineups'

Yesterday the Innocence Project of Texas released its report criticizing "scent lineups" used by Fort Bend County Sheriff's Deputy Keith Pikett, who as regular readers know has seen his dogs' identification of suspects debunked in several recent, high-profile cases, including two capital murders. See a copy here (pdf) and initial coverage from the Houston Chronicle and the Victoria Advocate. The brief report, written by IPOT legal director Jeff Blackburn, is well worth a full read but I thought I'd point out a few highlights.One new fact-bite in the report concerns the use of scent lineups in communist Cuba, where "secret police have amassed thousands of bottles of scents taken from anti-Castro slogans painted on walls and other such 'crime scenes' and are using them as 'proof' against dissidents...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on September 22, 2009 (boomark / email).