25 Years After Junk Science Conviction, Texas Admits Sonia Cacy's Innocence
This is something I find extremely scary, because an unusual series of events (accidental fire, accidental drowning, suicide) could be framed to look like something entirely different (arson, murder), which could drag any one of us into a nightmare. If you don&#x27;t have the money to hire your own experts and a strong legal team, potentially bankrupting yourself, you are at the mercy of a motivated prosecutor with nearly unlimited resources.<p>In 2009 a scathing report was released by the National Academy of Sciences that essentially says that blood spatter, handwriting, hair, fingerprints, and bite mark analysis are all junk science[0]. If two &quot;experts&quot; can look at the same evidence and come to entirely different conclusions, how is this science? It&#x27;s opinion wrapped up as scientific fact. Who knows how many people are innocently convicted. It&#x27;s terrifying.<p>An excerpt from WikiPedia about hair analysis:<p><i>The outcry from defense attorneys has forced the FBI to open up on disputed hair analysis matches since 2012. The Justice department began an &quot;unprecedented&quot; review of old cases involving hair analysis in July 2013, examining more than 21,000 cases referred to the FBI Lab&#x27;s hair unit from 1982 through 1999, and including as many as 27 death penalty convictions in which FBI experts may have exaggerated the reliability of hair analysis in their testimony. The review is still in progress, but in 2015, it released findings on 268 trials examined so far in which hair analysis was used. The review concluded that in 257 of these 268 trials, the analysts gave flawed testimony that overstated the accuracy of the findings in favor of the prosecution. About 1200 cases remain to be examined.</i>[1]<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2009&#x2F;02&#x2F;05&#x2F;us&#x2F;05forensics.html?pagewanted=all" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2009&#x2F;02&#x2F;05&#x2F;us&#x2F;05forensics.html?pagewa...</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Hair_analysis#Microscopic_hair_analysis_in_forensics" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Hair_analysis#Microscopic_hair...</a>