Submitted by alexdenipaul on Tue, 12/08/2009 - 07:21.
span id="mn_Global"span id="mn_Article"The Santa Clara District
Attorney's recent investigation into a crime lab error that helped
convict an innocent man was flawed, members of the U.S. Senate
Judiciary Committee were told Wednesday budget hosting, and the probe exposes the
problems when agencies conduct such reviews internally.
In written
comments that accompanied his appearance before the committee, Peter
Neufeld, co-founder of the Innocence Project in New York, contended
that the Santa Clara investigation was marred by a conflict of
interest, since the crime lab is operated by the district attorney's
office, which conducted the investigation. Finding problems in the
crime lab in such a situation, said Neufeld, would risk exposing
District Attorney Dolores Carr to potential liability or political
embarrassment adult hosting.
Neufeld's comments came as criticism of the Santa Clara procedure
mounted this week. The Department of Justice Inspector General issued a
report criticizing the practice of using internal investigators; and
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, (D-Vermont), expressed concern at the hearing
that the practice violates the spirit of the law he helped draft website templates.
The senate hearing is the latest twist in the case of Jeffrey
Rodriguez. He was convicted at a 2003 trial of robbing a Kragen Auto
Parts employee on a loading dock after crime lab analyst Mark Moriyama
offered testimony that helped place Rodriguez at the crime scene.
Moriyama's analysis was later challenged by two other laboratories cheap web hosting,
which said they could not
span id="mn_Global"span
span id="mn_Global"span id="mn_Article"The Santa Clara District
Attorney's recent investigation into a crime lab error that helped
convict an innocent man was flawed, members of the U.S. Senate
Judiciary Committee were told Wednesday budget hosting, and the probe exposes the
problems when agencies conduct such reviews internally.
In written
comments that accompanied his appearance before the committee, Peter
Neufeld, co-founder of the Innocence Project in New York, contended
that the Santa Clara investigation was marred by a conflict of
interest, since the crime lab is operated by the district attorney's
office, which conducted the investigation. Finding problems in the
crime lab in such a situation, said Neufeld, would risk exposing
District Attorney Dolores Carr to potential liability or political
embarrassment adult hosting.
Neufeld's comments came as criticism of the Santa Clara procedure
mounted this week. The Department of Justice Inspector General issued a
report criticizing the practice of using internal investigators; and
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, (D-Vermont), expressed concern at the hearing
that the practice violates the spirit of the law he helped draft website templates.
The senate hearing is the latest twist in the case of Jeffrey
Rodriguez. He was convicted at a 2003 trial of robbing a Kragen Auto
Parts employee on a loading dock after crime lab analyst Mark Moriyama
offered testimony that helped place Rodriguez at the crime scene.
Moriyama's analysis was later challenged by two other laboratories cheap web hosting,
which said they could not