Science, Standards and Forensics: Part III

After his 28 years in prison, freed by DNA tests, Donald Eugene Gates reflected on the difficulty of adjusting to his new life, telling the Washington Post: "Things are very different now, and I have to get used to it. It's strange. But it feels so good. Man, it feels very good." Twenty-eight years later, the world had changed in so many ways (the Internet, smart phones, social media and, of course, DNA testing). Three more years have passed since he was exonerated in Washington D.C., though, and the same problems with forensics remain.

His case should haunt us. Like I discussed in my last post, not only were scores of innocent people like Gates convicted based on unsound forensic techniques like hair comparisons, as I describe in my Convicting the Innocent book, but other types of forensics lack sound scientific standards. Crime lab after crime lab continues to be shuttered or audited due to lack of standards and oversight. We have no idea how many other innocent men like Gates may have languished in prisons; most old...