Discuss Detroit: Police halt gun lab testing

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Jams
Member
Username: Jams

Post Number: 8514
Registered: 10-2003

Posted on Saturday, April 26, 2008 - 9:14 am:

quote:
DETROIT -- Discrepancies in evidence being prepared for trials has forced a temporary shutdown of the Detroit Police Department's firearms analysis unit and will compel a review of all cases in the last year using firearms information provided by police technicians.

Significant problems were uncovered two weeks ago in firearm evidence prepared by police examiners in several cases, including two homicides, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy said in a written statement issued Friday evening.

Worthy ordered her staff on Thursday to begin a review of all cases that resulted in a trial or a guilty plea that relied on findings from Detroit Police firearm examiners. The audit will go back one year. All the defense attorneys on these files will be contacted and, after consultation, any evidence in question will be submitted for re-examination.

http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.d ll/article?AID=/20080426/METRO /804260398

More incompetence from the people that are supposed to "serve and protect" us.

Sstashmoo
Member
Username: Sstashmoo

Post Number: 1320
Registered: 02-2007

Posted on Saturday, April 26, 2008 - 10:47 am:

I've never understood why they rely so heavily on scores in the rifling. It's not necessarily conclusive. If the same machine and the same tooling perform the same operation, the machine marks will be almost identical. It would not change one part to the next. Really all they can do is match it up with that batch of barrels that were ran on that tooling. Court systems act like it's DNA evidence. In reality it's probably a 1 in 1000 probability with the ceramics and carbides they have nowadays. And if the innocent and true perp live in the same vicinity and bought from the same gunshop, that received an order of guns from the same batch? It's really not very conclusive at all.