Wisconsin DNA Backlog is GONE!

Excellent work Wisconsin. They were able to suc­cess­fully elim­i­nate their DNA back­log. How did they do it? Simple. They hired the num­ber of foren­sic sci­en­tists to took to process the vol­ume of work they had.

They could have elim­i­nated their back­log even sooner (they started real attempts to reduce it in 2007), if they

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Wisconsin Crime Lab Supervisor Reprimanded

One of the impor­tant aspects of being an accred­ited crime lab is peer review. Apparently, a super­vi­sor either wasn’t review­ing cases, or didn’t review to the sat­is­fac­tion of the lab director.

One of those dis­ci­plined is Dirk Janssen, the chem­istry super­vi­sor at the state crime lab.

In an August rep­ri­mand, lab Director Jana Champion accused Janssen of failing

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Wisconsin Department of Corrections Outsmarted by Convict

So the Wisconsin DOC was out­smarted by an in-custody pris­oner, who had other peo­ple donate DNA sam­ples and and fingerprints.

“We have rea­son to believe that Walter Ellis con­vinced another inmate to give a DNA sam­ple and an accom­pa­ny­ing fin­ger­print of the other inmate because he did not want to give a sam­ple for reasons

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Wisconsin Department of Justice doesn’t “get it”

The Wisconsin Department of Justice doesn’t seem to get what Melendez-Diaz is about. It’s not about some­one being in court to “read” the results, it’s about being able to effec­tively cross-examine the actual ana­lyst who per­formed the tests spe­cific to the case at trial.

“We don’t think the Melendez-Diaz deci­sion will have a sig­nif­i­cant impact on Wisconsin’s

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