Man Convicted Based on Erroneous Evidence Exonerated After 25 Years

&quot;[Out] of 268 cases where agents used microscopic hair analysis to link a defendant to a crime, the agents’ testimony was scientifically invalid in 257 or 96% of the cases.&quot;<p>That seems impossibly, mind-bogglingly incompetent.

The state of forensic &quot;science&quot; today is similar to the state of medicine in the 18th century. Bloodletting wasn&#x27;t an effective treatment, and but it&#x27;s not like doctors--much less ordinary people--of the time knew any better.<p>Obviously those participating in hiding evidence should be prosecuted, but it&#x27;s hard to blame everyone else who is going along with what forensic &quot;scientists&quot; tell them. The legitimate scientific establishment has done little to nothing to expose this field as the domain of charlatans. How are lay people supposed to understand the difference?

And this goes to show that if you want a fair trial in any country (even relatively evolved western countries), you need to be rich enough to have a decent legal team. When you read some of the cases from the innocence project, the incompetence is mind boggling.<p>And don&#x27;t get me started on countries like Japan with 99.7% conviction rate and antiquated laws regarding police arrest.<p>I think that until you have a significant sum of money that can be used to pay for a legal defense team, you are at risk of prison even if you&#x27;re innocent (of course in most cases the risk is negligible but if you&#x27;re part of a minority it might not be)...

This is one of the big reasons why there shouldn&#x27;t be a death penalty.

One gets the ridiculous situation where an innocent person in prison, keeps on maintaining that they are innocent and end up serving far longer sentences than guilty people, convicted of very similar crimes, that don&#x27;t deny their guilt.<p>I am not sure if this applied in this case, but it may well have done.

Can he sue for compensation? Or, better yet, for putting prosecutors into jail for that?

The very fact that something like innocence project <i>needs to exist</i> is depressing :(

One of the best, most eye-opening books on this subject I&#x27;ve read is Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson.

Another reason why it&#x27;s best just to close the blinds, turn on the computer, and lay low for the rest of your life, using video games and pornography to entertain and escape.<p>You&#x27;ll be more likely to duck things like this if no one knows your name.

Listen and believe