Congress Finally Has Hearings on the NAS Report

It would seem Congress has finally taken up hear­ings on the NAS report writ­ten months ago. Congress seemed to agree to allo­cate more funds for train­ing, research in the field, and fed­eral stan­dards should be cre­ated for labs and analysts.

They didn’t agree on set­ting up a fed­eral agency.

…the fed­eral gov­ern­ment shouldn’t “try to micro­man­age every bur­glary, rob­bery and rape case” in America.

Also there was tes­ti­mony from Peter Neufeld:

Peter Neufeld, direc­tor of the Innocence Project, intro­duced a guest: Roy Brown, who was con­victed of mur­der based largely on tes­ti­mony from a foren­sic dentist

Once again, crime lab­o­ra­to­ries don’t employ den­tists. The use of a “foren­sic den­tist” was most likely some­thing the pros­e­cu­tor did in order to help them win their case.

The arti­cle also under­scored a lack of under­stand­ing of foren­sic sci­ence, and its rel­e­vant organizations:

He noted that one in five labs does not meet accred­i­ta­tion stan­dards set by the National Academy of Crime Lab Directors. “We can­not allow these nation­wide defi­cien­cies in foren­sic sci­ences to con­tinue,” Leahy [com­mit­tee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT)] said.

There is no National Academy of Crime Lab Directors. But per­haps the most laugh­able con­tri­bu­tion to the arti­cle was the fact that NPR found comic-turned-politician Al Franken quotable:

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) called the report’s con­clu­sions “damn­ing” and “terrifying.”

Al Franken (D-MN) (KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images)

I guess Senator Franken hasn’t given up his “day job.”

Read the whole NPR report on the Congressional hear­ings on the NAS foren­sic report here.