A horror story

This wasn't supposed to happen here

[Reprinted from Issues & Views December 10, 2001]

Where does a hapless, but innocent accused turn when the government's forensic "expert" testifies with certainty to his guilt in a crime? The Washington Post (11/26/01) reports a horror story about a forensic chemist in Oklahoma City, Joyce Gilchrist, whose incompetence may have led to executions of innocent people. At the least, her tendency to mismatch hairs, fiber and semen has meant lost years of freedom for many who were incarcerated primarily on the basis of her analysis of evidence.

Gilchrist, who was fired in September, successfully withstood complaints against her work for two decades, during which she offered forensic testimony in hundreds of felony cases. It appears that she thought of herself as the prosecution's ally, rather than as an objective scientist whose job it was to honestly ferret out the truth.

A re-examination of her work has freed a convicted rapist and a death row inmate and overturned a death sentence. Investigation has also called into question the evidence used to execute a man last year. About 165 more cases are claimed to merit "further review." State and federal investigators are now scrutinizing Gilchrist's work in more than 1,200 cases.

As early as 1987, a Missouri police chemist wrote a letter to the Southwestern Association of Forensic Scientists complaining that Gilchrist rendered opinions that were not scientific, but based on "the slightest bit of circumstantial evidence." A year later, an Oklahoma court overturned a murder conviction because Gilchrist gave "personal opinions beyond the scope of scientific capabilities."

As horrendous as the Gilchrist story is, unfortunately it is not singular. The Post further reports:

And she [Gilchrist] is not alone. As DNA analysis has freed dozens of convicts, with hundreds more cases pending, it has also raised questions about the scientists who helped convict them. In May, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers appointed a forensic task force to study the issue.

In the most high-profile incidents nationally, at least 10 convictions have been overturned in Illinois, West Virginia and Texas because of the work of two criminal scientists. The 1987 testimony of Illinois forensic scientist Pamela Fish in a rape and murder case is under review now because recent DNA testing showed semen recovered from the victim did not match any of the four men convicted of the crime. And in West Virginia, a jury deadlocked in September when the state tried Fred Zain for fabricating blood-test findings after convictions that relied on his testimony were overturned.

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