Post by thinkinkmesa on Sept 15, 2008 9:52:42 GMT -5
Evidence Of Injustice
*Sept. 14, 2008*
------------ --------- ---------
*(CBS) **This segment was originally broadcast on Nov. 18, 2007. It was
updated on Sept. 12, 2008.*
Aside from eyewitness testimony, some of the most believable evidence
presented in criminal cases in the United States comes from the FBI crime
laboratory in Quantico, Va. Part of its job is to test and analyze
everything from ballistics to DNA for state and local prosecutors around the
country, introducing scientific credibility to often murky cases.
But a six-month investigation by *60 Minutes*** and The Washington Post last
November showed that there are hundreds of defendants imprisoned around the
country who were convicted with the help of a now discredited forensic tool,
and that the FBI never notified them, their lawyers, or the courts, that the
their cases may have been affected by faulty testimony.
The science, called bullet lead analysis, was used by the FBI for 40 years
in thousands of cases, and some of the people it helped put in jail may be
innocent.
As *correspondent Steve Kroft* reports, one of them is Lee Wayne Hunt, who
is now serving a life sentence for murder in North Carolina.
To read more:
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/16/60minutes/main3512453.shtml
*Sept. 14, 2008*
------------ --------- ---------
*(CBS) **This segment was originally broadcast on Nov. 18, 2007. It was
updated on Sept. 12, 2008.*
Aside from eyewitness testimony, some of the most believable evidence
presented in criminal cases in the United States comes from the FBI crime
laboratory in Quantico, Va. Part of its job is to test and analyze
everything from ballistics to DNA for state and local prosecutors around the
country, introducing scientific credibility to often murky cases.
But a six-month investigation by *60 Minutes*** and The Washington Post last
November showed that there are hundreds of defendants imprisoned around the
country who were convicted with the help of a now discredited forensic tool,
and that the FBI never notified them, their lawyers, or the courts, that the
their cases may have been affected by faulty testimony.
The science, called bullet lead analysis, was used by the FBI for 40 years
in thousands of cases, and some of the people it helped put in jail may be
innocent.
As *correspondent Steve Kroft* reports, one of them is Lee Wayne Hunt, who
is now serving a life sentence for murder in North Carolina.
To read more:
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/16/60minutes/main3512453.shtml