[ Russia Today - http://rt.com/usa/usa-reviews-death-penalty-274/ ]
The FBI has reviewed thousands of criminal cases and suspects that 27
death penalty convictions may have been secured by using faulty and
exaggerated testimonies that may have wrongfully linked defendants to
crimes.
A joint review by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the
Justice Department was launched after the Washington Post last
year reported that flawed forensic work by FBI hair examiners
might have led to the convictions of innocent people. The article
suggested that Justice Department officials knew of the flaws,
but failed to acknowledge them.
Last July, federal officials announced that they would
investigate old criminal cases to see if faulty testimonies
influenced death penalty convictions. More than 21,700 FBI
Laboratory files are being examined, and at least 120 convictions
have already been identified as potentially suspicious. Of these,
about 27 were death penalty convictions, the Post reports.-[Full Article]
