Legal Commentary

Report on DOJ's Failures Re: Forensic Oversight

By Jeralyn

The Innocence Project released an 84 page report today showing that under the Bush Administration, the Department of Justice failed to enforce federal forensic oversight requirements. The report lays out corrective measures for the Obama Administration.

A report released today by the Innocence Project shows that nearly five years after Congress passed legislation to ensure that forensic negligence and misconduct are properly investigated, the law is largely being ignored due to a lack of federal guidance and, as a result, serious problems in crime labs and other forensic facilities nationwide have not been addressed.

[More...]

The 84-page report lays out key problems with the U.S. Department of Justice’s administration of the program for the last several years and outlines improvements the Obama Administration can make going forward.

....The report includes a survey and analysis by the Innocence Project which found that only 13% of the oversight entities meet all of the requirements under federal law – that they be external and independent, and that they have an appropriate process in place for handling investigations.

These are the problems:

• Designated entities aren’t appropriate for conducting investigations. • Entities don’t know they’ve been designated to handle investigations.
• Designated entities don’t have an appropriate process for conducting investigations.
• The Department of Justice grants funds to states that aren’t complying with the requirements.

These are the recommendations for the feds:

• Provide better guidance to Coverdell applicants about what qualifies as an independent external government entity. • Provide Coverdell applicants with a clear framework for an “appropriate process” to investigate forensic errors.
• Encourage each Coverdell applicant to provide supporting documentation with its grant application.
• Make it easier for members of the public to file allegations under the Coverdell program.
• Make sure labs are referring allegations to their investigative entities.
• Monitor thoroughness and independence of investigations.
• Withhold funding when the requirements are not met.

These are the recommendations for states:

• Designate appropriate entities and communicate with them about what’s required.
• Establish policies to clearly meet the certification requirement.
• Facilitate the proper filing of Coverdell allegations.

The Executive Summary of the report is here.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 11, 2009 (boomark / email).