UPDATE: Dozens Of Flawed Cases From State Crime Lab In Eastern Carolina
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Updated: 5:19 AM Aug 19, 2010
UPDATE: Dozens Of Flawed Cases From State Crime Lab In Eastern Carolina
Most Eastern Carolina counties have cases that have been flagged in a scathing report about tainted evidence.
Posted: 1:43 PM Aug 18, 2010
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Cases in most Eastern Carolina counties will have to be reviewed after a report found blood analysis in criminal cases aided prosecutors.

Of the 190 cases flagged, Pitt County has nine. Lenoir County has eight cases. The cases will all have to be reviewed after a scathing report was released Wednesday, showing some evidence in the case may have been tainted.

Other counties with flagged cases include Beaufort, Bertie, Chowan, Craven, Dare, Duplin, Edgecombe, Greene, Halifax, Hertford, Hyde, Jones, Nash, Northampton, Onslow, Pasquotank, Pender, Washington, Wayne and Wilson.

Seven of the cases were capital cases. Three of those defendants have already been executed while four are on death row. The report's authors, two former FBI agents, does not say there were wrongful convictions. It says attorneys and courts will have to decide whether those occurred.

The cases cover a 16-year period, with the latest cases from 2003.

District Attorney Seth Edwards is the prosecutor in Beaufort, Hyde, Martin, Tyrrell and Washington Counties. There are seven cases in that district that will have to be reviewed. "It will end up in the thousands of hours when it's all said and done, because these cases, the majority of them are serious cases," Edwards told WITN. "We're not talking about a breaking and entering. The majority of them were homicides and death penalty cases."

To see the report, click the link below.



Previous Story:

A North Carolina's law enforcement agent has been taken off the job after a scathing report found his work among the worst done on scores of flawed criminal cases.

The new director of the State Bureau of Investigation said Wednesday that Duane Deaver is on investigatory placement, meaning he cannot work but gets paid while an investigation continues.

An outside review of the blood analysis unit at the SBI crime lab said Deaver overstated or falsely reporting blood test results in five cases.

Deaver's testimony about SBI policies on omitting test results from lab reports led to the outside review.

Deaver didn't return a message left at his office phone earlier Wednesday, and no one came to the door of his home Wednesday afternoon.


Previous Story:

North Carolina's top prosecutor says criminal cases may be reopened following an investigation that found state crime lab analysts in North Carolina omitted, overstated or falsely reported blood evidence.

Attorney General Roy Cooper said Wednesday that prosecutors and defense attorneys need to review the cases to see if more work needs to be done.

The statement came after the review by two former FBI officials found 190 flawed cases, including the murder of Michael Jordan's father and three that ended in executions.

The report also calls for changes at the State Bureau of Investigation crime lab.

The review does not say there were wrongful convictions.

Cooper ordered the review after the exoneration of a longtime convict.

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.


Latest Comments

Posted by: To2: To: Tree on Aug 20, 2010 at 09:29 AM

I sincerely hope you never need the services of law enforcement. That you are never a victim of a crime or a loved one of yours is never victimized. The sheer ignorance of people is truly amazing. Let us know when all of you graduate from BLET and obtain your jobs as police officers. Good Luck!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: James Location: NC on Aug 19, 2010 at 06:55 PM

Just think if this is happening with such high profile cases, just imagine how many people are wrongly convicted in district courts! Just on a cops word! I had a friend who was killed by cops a year and a half ago. I read the SBI report and they could not even get where he lived right. Of course the cops was let off.
Posted by: Mike on Aug 19, 2010 at 06:43 PM

Figures. Ive been through our "justice" system here in enc,and this dosent surprise me one bit. I defended my family aginst an intruder and got convicted over BS testimoney from The sbi and the states expert witness,and let me tall ya if you think the circus is a riot,go watch some trials in these counties,its real interaning.

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