In the case Coy vs.
Texas, there was no physical evidence used to convict Coy; as far as I can
tell, none was ever even gathered. Still, I want to take a moment to talk about
the Houston Crime Lab.
Why? Because it’s another tiny window into the larger
picture of how the Harris County Justice system worked under Chuck Rosenthal.
In late 2002, a local Houston television station began
broadcasting a series on the Crime Lab’s accuracy. After it aired the Houston
Police Department, which apparently had NO IDEA what kind if hijinks those
wacky lab techs were getting up to, announced they were sending in some
independent scientists to investigate. Because, you know, how were they
supposed to know the lab was churning out results that were inaccurate? It’s
not like a police department has its own detectives…or scientist-supervisors… or
employs highly trained individuals whose (ostensible) work revolves around
finding truth and investigating everything from murders to bounced checks,
right?
Obviously, if your DNA department is producing tainted
results, or employing incompetent scientists, or sending innocent citizens to
prison for crimes they hadn’t committed, it’s a good thing to get someone
unconnected to the department to investigate; but why in hell would you ignore
a problem like that for so long that, once the independent experts have made
their report, you have to shut the damn thing down?
The problems continue to this day; from the parole-board’s
careless drug-testing, to the willful ignorance of the Breath Alcohol Testing
vans and their malfunctioning equipment, the hard evidence used to support
cases against people like you and me is continually called into question.
I’m not a scientist, I have no brilliant insights into the
cause of the problems, or how they could be fixed; but as a citizen whose life
one day may be affected by these same shoddy practices, I have to say that I
don’t accept this as right, or allowable, or just ‘the cost of being protected.’
If they’re unwilling to correct their own mistakes until a
TV station makes a public spectacle of it, why should I believe them when they
tell me their social workers are knowledgeable, or their psychologists are
experienced? Why should I have any more respect for the testimony of a police
officer than the testimony of someone with a financial stake in the case?
2 comments:
Amen sista!!!
Great post as always.
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