Monday, October 15, 2007

Better late than never, judges create panel to evaluate Houston crime lab cases

Finally, Harris County judges took action when the Houston PD and Harris County DA have failed for months to do so, creating an independent panel to evaluate potentially tainted convictions from the HPD crime lab. It's about damn time! A lot of these folks were never even notified their conviction was obtained with flawed or fabricated crime lab results.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

DPS spends 165,000 to protect video


Associated Press


AUSTIN, Texas -- The Texas Department of Public Safety's fight to keep videotapes that recorded the hall behind the House chamber of the Capitol secret has angered a key Senate leader.

The DPS, which oversees Capitol security, has spent more than $165,000 of taxpayer money over two years on attorney's fees to withhold the tapes from a biweekly news magazine, despite rulings by the attorney general and a state district judge saying the tapes should be made public.
http://www.theeagle.com/texas/DPS_spends__165_000_to_protect_video

Daniel said...

Howdy Grits,

I would think all crime labs would benefit from independent oversight. Specifically, spot checking random cases... along the same lines as any ISO Quality Audit or Control Phase of a Six Sigma DMAIC project.

Howdy Nameless One,

What's speculated (or known) to be on that video? I strain myself thinking of any legitimate claim an individual State could make to 'state secret'.

Anonymous said...

HPD shouldn't even have a crime lab. The work should be contracted out so the evidence isn't biased. I can read between the lines and they were fixing cases to get a conviction. IMHO.