It really shouldn’t be that difficult to understand. Due to the economy, to meet budgetary requirements, The Georgia state crime lab system had to close down satellite labs. The result is that fewer people are now having to analyze more evidence in a smaller space. The resulting bottle-neck means it takes longer for evidence to be processed by the crime lab.
All the evidence might not be analyzed until the end of the year or later, testified Bill Daras, the Glynn County police’s lead investigator in the case.
Joseph Vigneri, lead lawyer for Heinze, complained about the slow pace to Chief Superior Court Judge Amanda Williams during a hearing focusing on Perry’s request for more time to turn over evidence to the defense for review.
“Mr. Heinze has been arrested, incarcerated and indicted since September. I don’t understand why there are 65 or more items sitting at the police department that have not been sent to the crime lab,” Vigneri said.
Perry told Williams the amount of evidence was overwhelming. Prosecutors are moving as quickly as possible, however, a growing backlog resulting from cuts to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation budget is hampering analysis of the evidence at the crime lab, he said.
“I don’t think we’ve been overwhelmed by anything in this case. As we go through the evidence, we’re cataloging everything that’s been logged in but not provided to us,” Vigneri responded.
Williams told Vigneri she has no control over state budget cuts, which led to the closure of two regional crime labs and caused backups at those still open.
“There is no way I can make the crime lab hurry up,” Williams said.
Williams, however, gave Perry 30 days to give Vigneri an inventory and status report on the evidence. She also instructed him to forward the outstanding evidence to the crime lab within 90 days.
Read more about the specifics of the Heinze case delay in the Jacksonville.com.
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