This op-ed originally appeared in the The Hill
Editor’s Note: This column was co-authored by Joshua Hutchinson and Patrick Purtill.
For a law enforcement officer, the only thing worse than a violent crime going unsolved is when the wrong man or woman is convicted. If an innocent person goes to prison, investigators stop investigating, and the guilty party is free to victimize again.
We are now learning that wrongful convictions happen more often when junk science is allowed in court. And in at least nine cases, innocent people were put to death, all because faulty forensics were relied on to get a murder conviction.
Science has an important role to play in America’s courtrooms. DNA, for example, which has been thoroughly vetted and tested, is highly reliable. A report by the National Academy of Sciences concluded no other forensic approach can link evidence to a specific individual with a high degree of certainty. Yet, unproven science is still routinely accepted as definitive evidence in America’s courtrooms.
For decades, expert witnesses told juries that a single strand of hair found at a crime scene could be compared to a suspect’s hair to prove his/her guilt. The use of microscopic hair comparisons dates back to the 19th century. For years, this type of testimony carried enormous weight in courtrooms, often presented as an objective, scientific fact. Jurors had little reason to question it, and based on expert testimony comparing hair samples, thousands of Americans may have been wrongly convicted.
In 2015, the FBI concluded that microscopic hair analysis testimony provided by its examiners was incorrect in at least 90 percent of the trial transcripts it reviewed. What had long been presented as reliable forensic evidence was, in many cases, fundamentally flawed. Federal officials acknowledged these errors, noting they had made egregious mistakes in both testimony and laboratory reports. The FBI pledged that, going forward, it would be committed to notifying affected defendants and improving forensic standards.
Read the full op-ed in The Hill
**About Unify.US**
Unify.US is a nonprofit advocacy organization formed by free-market conservatives and activists from the faith community. The organization embraces the core principles of individual freedom, limited government, and traditional American values, in finding common sense solutions to some of America’s most complex problems.
Follow our work on X (@UnifyUSOfficial) and our Facebook page.
