Detroit crime lab review: 147 cases need retesting

Originally posted here.

DETROIT (AP) — Authorities have iden­ti­fied 147 cases of con­victed and impris­oned peo­ple that will require retest­ing of evi­dence as part of a search for cases where the now-shuttered Detroit police lab may have mis­judged results.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy told the Detroit Free Press for a story Sunday the num­ber rep­re­sents the “tip of the ice­berg.” She says defense lawyers noti­fied her office of 30 other cases that they believe relied on mis­han­dled evidence.

Worthy in December announced that author­i­ties would review more than five years of files to search for cases where gun evi­dence may have been mis­judged. The work is expected to take at least three years.

The review cov­ers 2003 through much of September 2008.

The Detroit crime lab was shut down in September after a Michigan State Police audit found errors in 10 per­cent of 200 ran­dom gun cases. Detroit’s work is being han­dled by state police foren­sic scientists.

That work is tax­ing the state police’s capac­ity. State police expect their labs to han­dle at least 20,000 Detroit cases this year, in addi­tion to 10,000 from their inves­ti­ga­tions and 650 other departments.

Meanwhile, the case of a slay­ing sus­pect who was granted a new trial because of errors in the pro­cess­ing of evi­dence at the Detroit lab is expected back in Wayne County Circuit Court later this month.

A judge last year allowed Jarrhod Williams to with­draw two no-contest pleas to charges of second-degree mur­der. His sec­ond trial is sched­uled for March 30. Williams’ case led author­i­ties to take an ini­tial look at the lab’s results.