FBI Admits Widespread Forensic Errors

The US Federal Bureau of Investigations has formally admitted providing flawed forensic evidence in hundreds of criminal cases.

The FBI has so far disclosed that forensic match analysis of human hair was faulty in 32 instances in which defendants were sentenced to death.

14 of those cases led to the defendant being executed or dying in prison.

The cases occured for at least two decades leading up to the year 2000.

The issues was first raised internally by former FBI scientist Dr. Fred Whitehurst in the 1980s, concerns he then made public in the 1990s.

Since then he's been fighting for hundreds of cases to be re-examined...

IN: It is a sweet revelation...
OUT: ...how will we?
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He says it exposes major institutional flaws within the American justice system....

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OUT: ...they knew.
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He says he was ousted from his job after making his concerns public.

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OUT: ...the whole nation.
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He provides the example of just one inmate in South Carolina....

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Whitehurst's attorney Stephen Kohn says it exposes major flaws in the forensic system across the country...

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OUT: ...at the trial.
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Whitehurst's attorney Stephen Kohn says it's a vindication of his client's whistleblowing...
IN: And now it's clear...
OUT: ...this fraud.
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Whitehurst's attorney Stephen Kohn says the errors were only uncovered because of these actions...

IN: Doctor Whitehurst...
OUT: ...whistleblowing.
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