A new study published in the Virginia Law Review found that forensic experts gave flawed testimony in the trials of 82 men, including four men convicted in Virginia in the 1980s.  Brandon L. Garnett, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, and Peter Neufeld, cofounder of the Innocence Project, examined the trial transcripts of 137 people during whose trial’s forensic experts had testified on behalf of the prosecution and who were later exonerated through testing of DNA evidence. In these 137 trials, Garnett and Neufeld found that 60 percent contained flawed forensic expert testimony. However, Garnett and Neufeld’s study did not suggest that the flawed testimony was necessarily the source of the wrongful convictions.

The four Virginia men whose trial transcripts were examined in the study are Willie Davidson II, who was cleared of a 1980 rape; Earl Washington Junior, cleared of capital murder and a 1982 rape; Edward Honaker, cleared of a 1984 rape; and Tony Webb who was cleared of a 1988 rape.
 
One of the most common errors that can lead to a wrongful conviction is mistaken eyewitness identification.  Mistaken eyewitness identification coupled with flawed forensic expert testimony results in many wrongful convictions.  One possible solution that Peter Marone, the Director of Technical Services at the Virginia Department of Forensic Science, offers is the standardization of methods and technology.   

For a more detailed summary of the report, please click here .

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