FBI admits major flaws in forensics over three decades

INTRODUCTION: The US Federal Bureau of Investigations has formally admitted providing flawed forensic evidence in hundreds of criminal cases.

Of the cases they've so far analyzed, the FBI say there are 14 people who were executed or died in prison.

From Washington, Daniel Ryntjes reports...

IN: In the mid 1980s...
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In the mid 1980s a forensic expert called Dr. Frederick Whitehurst, a former intelligence specialist in Vietnam, joined the FBI's forensics unit.

He quickly discovered major flaws in the analysis of hair samples and raised objections internally.

By 1994 he made his concerns public and was fired in 1998.

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Since then he's been fighting for a review of thousands of cases in which the prosecution was reliant on hair samples.

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The FBI has so far disclosed that forensic match analysis of human hair was faulty in 32 instances in which  people were sentenced to death.

14 of those cases led executions or people dying in prison.

The cases occurred for at least two decades leading up to the year 2000.

Whitehurst's attorney Stephen Kohn says the errors were only uncovered because of his clients whistle blowing activity.

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Rosalie Bolin who's husband Oscar Ray Bolin is on death row says she is hoping the case will now be revisited.

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Defendants and prosecutors in 46 states and Washington DC are being notified  so that they can then determine if cases dating from the 1970s to the early 2000s should be reviewed.

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