Local Reactions to the SBI Lab Review

It would appear every­one is hav­ing sim­i­lar reac­tions to the results of the North Carolina SBI crime lab review.

A review of the blood analy­sis unit at the State Bureau of Investigation’s crime lab found ana­lysts omit­ted, over­stated or falsely reported blood evi­dence in 230 cases – 190 of which went to trial.

Of those, 80 of the defen­dants are still serv­ing time. Four are on death row, three were exe­cuted, though they con­fessed to their crimes, and five died in prison.

On the find­ings of the review:

Roy Cooper, North Carolina attor­ney general:

“While the report did not make a deter­mi­na­tion on whether the out­come of any of these pros­e­cu­tions would have been affected, I firmly believe in the inter­est of jus­tice that the full case files in each of these cases should be reviewed by both pros­e­cu­tors and appro­pri­ate defense coun­sel to deter­mine if any of these cases should be reopened.

“This report is trou­bling. It describes a prac­tice that should have been unac­cept­able then and it is unac­cept­able now. There is clearly work to do. The lab can­not accept a lack of thor­ough­ness. It can­not accept atti­tudes that are not open to the pos­si­bil­ity that a mis­take has been made. It can­not ignore crit­i­cisms and sug­ges­tions from the outside.

“Today, ana­lysts in the lab are vital in iden­ti­fy­ing crim­i­nal sus­pects and exon­er­at­ing inno­cent peo­ple. Their work, along with the SBI agents across this state is cru­cial in pro­tect­ing North Carolina, and they are work­ing hard. There are smart, hon­est hard­work­ing sci­en­tists in the fields who ana­lyze evi­dence and pro­vide the infor­ma­tion needed to keep us safe and serve the inter­est of justice.

“Today. most ana­lysts have advanced sci­ence degrees and their lab reports and bench notes are avail­able online.”

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Bev Perdue, governor:

“We learned today that there are real prob­lems with the SBI crime lab pro­ce­dures. The work there must be based on the integrity of sci­ence, and it must be above reproach.”

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I. Beverly Lake, for­mer chief jus­tice and founder of the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission

“I’m absolutely shocked and astounded at the depth of the prob­lem. .. That’s hor­ren­dous. That’s a ter­ri­ble indict­ment on the state of North Carolina.”

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Colon Willoughby, Wake County dis­trict attorney:

“If it appears an inno­cent per­son was con­victed, we need to be con­cerned and rec­tify that. We need to look at the process and make sure we make sys­temic changes so it does not hap­pen again.”

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Rep. Rosa Gill, D-Wake:

“It was shock­ing. … I think there’s going to be some changes.”

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Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake:

“This is sim­ply inex­cus­able. … It’s prob­a­bly going to cost the state tax­pay­ers mil­lions of dol­lars. … We have to con­sider whether or not the SBI should remain under the attor­ney general’s office or whether it should be an inde­pen­dent agency.”

Originally posted on the WRAL web­site.