In a scandal that broke on the heels of extensive efforts to reform Philadelphias habitually corrupt police force, the officers of the 39th shocked the conscience of Philadelphia with tales of false arrests, evidence tampering, violence, and even theft. Acclaimed fire investigator and scientist Gerald Hurst found Vasquezs claims to be dubious and stated that there was no evidence to suggest arson. With the crime scene ransacked, the only fingerprint compromised, and most of the witnesses missing, this simple case ended up becoming a huge forensic fail for the prosecution.[1]. But thats only the beginning. OJ Simpson was found not guilty on October 3, 1995. Blood samples found inside of Simpsons Bronco, which was discovered outside Simpsons home the next day, were equally matched to Simpson and both victims. Gibson claimed to have heard a female voice call out, Henry! before the fatal shots were fired. After 36 years of appeals, the evidence was finally located on the top shelf of a forensics storage room. Because the police department did not have proper collection documents regarding Simpsons blood, it was argued that the police planted Simpsons missing blood on critical evidence and in critical areas of the murder scene. At the time, tests were not readily available to differentiate between natural and contaminant EDTA or the differences in the level of EDTA in blood. With examples of misconduct extending into the 1980s, the Houston crime lab precipitated a lengthy reign of errors that has led to two mandatory shutdowns. But the evidence of his wrongdoing, along with the actions of other Brooklyn officers, was enough to throw out 400 different drug cases and secure the release of over two dozen people wrongfully arrested on drug charges. In the meantime, the criminal justice system will be left to clean up the countless messes caused by a single person with too much incentive to lie and too little oversight. As a result, the cases against 11 suspected rapists have gone cold, perhaps never to be solved. He testified about the condition of a dead mans spleen, not knowing that the spleen had been surgically removed years earlier. The daylight murder of the disabled 18-year-old on Aug. 5, 2000, galvanized a drug-racked neighborhood otherwise numb to the grim pornography of casual, curbside killings . Prior to exiting a taxi at the fast food chain Popeye's in New York last October, Franqueira refused to pay his fare and pulled a gun on the driver. One of the most frustrating and heartbreaking docu-series in recent memory was The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez. While interviewing with the CIA, Harding touted his evidence planting exploits as an example of his ability to conduct covert operations, somehow failing to comprehend that admitting to a string of serious crimes might get him in trouble with the government. She was also accused of taking cocaine from positive samples and adding it to negative samples to help secure convictions. When his son failed to respond, he called 911. Simpson case can be found here. had been cut on his left hand, and Nicoles fresh blood was found on his socks. On November 2, 2007, American college student Amanda Knox returned to her flat in Perugia, Italy. On July 22, 1933, he and another man kidnapped wealthy Oklahoma City oilman Charles Urschel. In some ways, it can be said that Dookhan was just giving her superiors what they wanted. Throughout the investigation, there were issues with how evidence was secured. In fact, she didnt even have the masters degree she claimed to have earned. In the results-driven world of laboratory work, her virtually inhuman ability to amass test results placed Dookhan in a position of distinction. And, for a time, its Sapphire sex crimes unit was expected to be no exception. The potential breakthrough for Knox and Sollecito came just two days after their case suffered a hefty setback. Even before the shoddy evidence testing began, samples were often contaminated via a leaky roof. Still, Robert Lowery, vice president of the Missing Children's Division at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, points to other high-profile missing children's cases as support for the belief that cases like . He spent 26 years in jail before a group called The . While he has not been charged yet, he has been suspended while the authorities investigate these allegations. But when the unit faced blistering criticism over a barrage of bungles that allowed a prolific rapist to prey on more than 70 women and another to victimize up to 102 people, a number of Sapphire investigators categorized cases incorrectly, attempting to artificially reduce the number of unsolved sexual assaults. The jurors have to unanimously decide guilt or innocence. For an unattended death, law enforcement must use a combination of investigative techniques and science to calculate how much time elapsed between the victim taking their last breath and their remains being found. This put anything he touched in the investigation under scrutiny. On April 27, a woman in eastern Brooklyn called the police. This was probably the only case on record where criminals trying to steal old forensics were caught using new forensics.[4]. Sadly, Willingham was found guilty and executed February 17, 2004. He blamed the situation on the deplorable funding for storage, coupled with low pay for overworked evidence clerks. 1. Additionally, a Dutch forensic expert found Boneys DNA under Kim Camms fingernails and her DNA on his sweatshirt, two pieces of evidence which sealed his conviction. During the first trial in 1978, state serologist Michael Podlecki testified that at least one of the rapists had type A secretor blood, a trait shared with approximately 25 percent of the population. The case caught a break in 2005 when the DNA of career criminal, Charles Boney, was matched to a sweatshirt at the scene of the crime. Giving evidence to a justice select committee inquiry into failures to hand over material that have led to multiple court cases collapsing, leading digital forensic experts warned of funding . While the abundance of evidence certainly provided more than enough to do so, the doubts cast by the sloppy police work were enough of a window. A Canadian Pacific . But, for residents of Douglas County, Nebraska, those three letters could just as easily stand for Criminal Subterfuge in Investigations thanks to disgraced David Kofoed, whose tenure as chief of the local CSI division was marred by the willful manipulation of DNA evidence in a series of murder cases. According to the Innocence Project, out of 329 wrongful convictions overturned by new DNA testing, 74 were due to erroneous microscopic hair evidence. Many experts assert that it can be easily compromised, planted, or deleted without a trace. This case involves defendant James Franqueira, a 32-year-old Vermont resident. A final eyewitness named Marvin Simpson came forward five days after the murders identifying four completely different men as the killers, but the police failed to investigate these claims. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. 1 The Central Park 5. This case is documented as the first to establish the modern law of negligence. When the prosecution presented hairs found in the back of Williamss car, Podlecki claimed they were consistent with the victims. In a separate, more jarring, example of wanton duplicity, detective constable Ryan Coleman-Farrow, another member of the allegedly elite Sapphire unit, simply declined to pursue the claims of at least 12 women who reported sexual assaults between 2007 and 2010. Unfortunately, DNA testing proved him innocent 11 months after he died. However, additional evidence later led authorities to the actual perpetrators of the double homicide and exposed Kofoeds deception. It was Romanelli who uncovered Kerchers two cell phones in a garden nearby and she requested that the police break into Kerchers room. His parents were both charged and convicted of murdering Gabriel due to signs of abuse. Frank Lee Smith, for example, died of cancer on death row, after serving 14 years for a rape and murder he did not commit. Robinson was on-site at a Tucson facility in April 2018 when the FBI took the servers into custody pursuant to a federal warrant. The case, which earned Kofoed his first and greatest encounter with infamy, revolved around the suspects in a double murder: Nicolas Sampson and Matt Livers. The athlete's lawyer said some images showed "great. Items were photographed without being labeled and logged, making it difficult, if not impossible, to link the photos to any specific area of the scene. This inability to understand key evidence made the evidence essentially useless; even some seasoned lawyers found the scientific testimonies to be incomprehensible. Death row inmates, however, lose more than time. Some believe that the positive EDTA results may have been due to contamination of the equipment used to run the tests. Defence lawyers argued that it was to be expected that Knox would have used the knife while visiting Sollecito, her boyfriend at the time of the killing. But, according to law enforcement, those drugs were being used to pay informants for information that would lead to major arrests in a case of noble cause corruption. Three years later, the public was blindsided by the news that the tale of evil woven by New Yorks finest was also a cover for the intentional arrest of innocent people. Forensic evidence is crucial to crime scene investigators. For Philadelphia, one of those chapters is undoubtedly devoted to its 39th district police officers. The claimant, Donoghue, brought a claim for personal injury against the . Witnesses may be unreliable, and memories might be foggy, but scientific evidence doesnt lie. After spending 680 days in jail awaiting trial on murder and robbery charges, an Oklahoma City man was finally acquitted late last month. "Not only should we not always trust the machine, we can't always trust the person that interprets the machine." Dror and Nina Sunde at the University of Oslo, Norway, gave 53 digital forensics. It began during the trial of a suspected Oxycontin dealer, when the court discovered that confiscated drugs had vanished and been replaced with heart medication. Camm was charged once againthis time as a co-conspirator with Boney. The jurors agreed that the DNA testimony was difficult to appreciate since expert witnesses were not able to put their evidence in terms that the jury could understand. Defense attorneys and organizations like the Innocence Project are pushing for standardized use of DNA tests on hair, as well as more accurate testimony about how hair can be similar, but not necessarily matched. Instead of attempting to cover up this hairy forensic fail, the FBI and all legal organizations involved admitted their mistakes and took full responsibility for preventing them in the future. Prosecutorial misconduct complaints against several lawyers and police officers who worked regularly with Erdmann claimed that the lawmen bribed, threatened, or encouraged the doctor to provide whatever evidence was needed to secure a conviction. In the months that followed, investigators revealed a pattern of malfeasance and unprofessionalism that would tax and tarnish Delawares criminal proceedings. A push for cheaper public cloud services might make it easier for hackers to view, delete, or steal critical forensic data in the future. This was particularly difficult to achieve in this case. There was about 1.5 mL of O.J. A sixth officer, situated in Troop F, had long known the other five perpetrators and undoubtedly shared in their criminal nonchalance, even planting evidence in one instance where a conviction would have been secured without it. He could not prove his whereabouts during this time. STORY HIGHLIGHTS. But, despite the laudable efforts of local and federal officials to stem the tide of narcotic officer corruption in Philadelphia, rampant corruption is alive and well on the streets of Philadelphia. Around midnight on November 29, 2012, a . Changing that initial perception was going to be tough. Two Rome University professors said there was no certainty that traces of DNA, found on a knife allegedly used in the murder, belonged to Kercher. DNA wasn't always widely accepted as valid evidence in court cases the way it is today. Police used forensic evidence found at the scene to track the thieves, which led to their houses. It wasnt until many years later that investigators would attribute his wounds to Willingham being in the fire before the flashover (i.e., when the entire room suddenly ignites in flames). Sollecito tried to force the door open and failed, prompting him to call the police. Notably, all three of the interviewed professors highly recommended a strong core of hard science courses to thrive in forensics careers. Schmal had been raped seven times. The investigation concluded that Deras "mishandled sensitive evidence" pertaining to 21-year-old Lauren McCluskey's case while he was employed with the university's police department. She was right. Her case has never been solved. One can only hope that, in time, his legacy will evolve into one of wrongs righted by a wiser justice system, rather than the virulent injustices he authored. Cases Where Digital Evidence Was Not Accepted. The integrity of the criminal justice system is intimately intertwined with the belief that we can trust the analysis of crime scene evidence. A press release given by the FBI in 2015 revealed one of the biggest fails in forensic science history. The prosecution had expert witnesses who testified that the evidence was often mishandled. The two were . The BTK Killer You can't talk about criminal cases and digital forensics without mentioning the infamous BTK killer case. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. Erdmann later admitted that he had thrown the head away. In West Virginia alone, Zain may have lied in as many as 182 different cases. John Vasquez, who worked in evidence management for 25 years, admitted that during his career, hed seen unlabeled evidence tossed into a closet, a hand grenade stored in a glass jar, boxes of corrosive chemicals leaking onto other boxes of evidence, and forensic samples stored in a clerks office next to employees food and drinks. Once Meredith Kerchers room was thoroughly searched, police uncovered fingerprints and DNA belonging to Rudy Guede, who had gone on a date with the victim the night of her murder. The reputation of Brooklyns officers has been doubly besmirched, as not only had they likely been arresting innocent people for years as a matter of convenience, but they covered up that behavior by casting themselves as heroic wrongdoers when, in reality, they were simply doing wrong. The judge made some good points and some that made it obvious that they aren't tech savvy but still a good read. O.C. For Philadelphia, one of those chapters is undoubtedly devoted to its 39th district police officers. A hair was collected from the sweater. Helmsman of the drug lab for nearly two decades, and himself suspected of professional improprieties, Callery had overseen a spate of irresponsible hiring decisions. Since the discovery of Dookhans conduct, at least 1,100 criminal cases have been dropped or dismissed and at least $8.5 million has been spent attempting to account for her mountain of faked lab data. 1. Filomena Romanelli, the third roommate, returned home following a phone conversation with Knox. In another instance, a former employee had managed to hold onto an evidence locker pass key six years after leaving the job. Cases involving computer forensics that made the news. Joseph Sledge, for example, served 36 years for a crime in North Carolina, but he could have been out decades earlier if police hadnt misplaced evidence from his trial. 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