On December 7, 2006, Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich signed an executive order establishing the Maryland Forensic Sciences Advisory Board.  According to Governor Ehrlich, "the Board's primary goal is to ensure that forensic sciences are conducted in Maryland under the highest quality control procedures using the most modern equipment and technology."  The Board is also charged with addressing "the major challenges facing our crime labs today, including financing equipment upgrades, professional training, national accreditation and employee retention." 

The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project is disappointed in Governor Ehrlich's response to the crime lab problem in Maryland.  Maryland is still not in compliance with a federal law enacted in 2004, which requires independent crime lab oversight in order to make a state eligible for specific types of federal funding for crime labs.  Currently, Maryland's forensic labs operate without any mandatory standards for the scientific validity of their procedures, the quality of technician training or performance, or the quality of the equipment used for forensic analysis.  They oeprate without any licensing or inspection of the lab or lab work product, including DNA testing, blood testing, and gunshot residue testing — all evidence used to identify and convict violent ofenders.  Governor Ehrlich's executive order does not bring Maryland into compliance with federal law or mandate any quality assurance.  It also does not increase funding, which is desperately needed for recruitment, training, employee retention, and adequate facilities and equipment.     

On December 12, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project issued a joint press release with the Maryland Office of the Public Defender and the Maryland branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, criticizing Governor Ehrlich's approach as simply authorizing more study of the problems inherent in Maryland's crime labs without doing anything to fix them.  "Despite repeated calls for standards and independent enforcement, despite wrongful convictions based in part upon problematic crime lab evidence, and despite prosecutions jeopardized by poor forensics, Maryland has failed to address the real issues," said Cindy Boersma, Legislative Director for the ACLU of Maryland.  Added MAIP's Shawn Armbrust, "Governor Ehrlich has created a task force charged with reviewing the work of a task force." 

Crime labs that lack funding, oversight, and standards are more likely to produce erroneous evidence that is used to prosecute and convict the wrong people, allowing the guilty to remain in the community and pose a public danger while subjecting innocent people to the possibility of convictions for crimes they did not commit.  We at MAIP find it outrageous that Maryland is not even in compliance with federal standards regulating crime lab oversight.  We urge incoming Governor Martin O'Malley to reduce the risk of unreliable criminal convictions and boost needed federal funding for Maryland's crime labs by embracing a plan that actually reforms the system, rather than continuing to study it. 

As of December 14, 2006, the full text of the Executive Order has not yet been posted on the Governor's web site, but it should eventually be available by clicking here. 

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