110818 - State Crime Lab Incompetence in the News Again (Courant)

[Mort Zuckerman]

courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-ed-crime-lab-
crisis-20110818,0,1237133.story
Courant.com
State Crime Lab Has Fallen Far Behind
Backlog And More: Malloy administration must resuscitate once-renowned
forensic facility

August 18, 2011
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A crime lab that was considered state-of-the-art a dozen years ago —
and famed criminologist Henry C. Lee's workspace — is the now the
shame of Connecticut.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's "team of key stakeholders," appointed last
week to address serious problems at the state police crime lab in
Meriden, can't get to work quickly enough.

The shocking truth is that the once-renowned crime lab is badly broken
and needs to be fixed — immediately. The lab lost its accreditation
this week from the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors.

The fix probably will involve hiring enough new professional staff to
get ahead of evidence-processing backlogs. That could cost upward of
$3.7 million a year, state police estimated earlier this year. But
it's a cost that must be paid. Justice depends on a reputable crime
lab and reliable DNA testing.

Once the province of former Mr. Lee, Connecticut public safety
director, who used it in many of his most famous cases, the lab in
recent years has been whipsawed by a drop in the number of scientists
working there and a dramatic increase in its workload, especially in
the volume of DNA evidence testing, which has jumped 400 percent since
2005.

This has created a backlog in evidence-processing so deep — the worst
in the nation, Mr. Malloy says — that the statute-of-limitations
deadline is in danger of being missed on dozens of criminal cases.

That would be unthinkable.

In addition, recent federal audits have cast suspicion on the lab's
operation, raising new questions about qualifications of supervisors,
evidence control, data security and the validity of DNA testing
procedures.

Understandably, these audits, conducted by a unit of the U.S.
Department of Justice, have caused widespread interest among defense
attorneys who wonder if any convictions have been put at risk.

How Bad The Mess Is

Here are the dimensions of the crime lab mess:

There is a backlog of 3,900 cases involving crime-scene evidence, up
from a backlog of zero in 2004. In March, there were 1,800 backlogged
firearms cases, up from fewer than 800 in January 2009. In March,
statutory deadlines loomed in more than 160 felony cases.

Mike Lawlor, the governor's point man for criminal justice affairs,
said, "There have been outrageous backlogs with the processing of
evidence — DNA, fingerprints, computer hard drives, everything. Police
in some cases have had to wait months, sometimes a year or more, for
results, and that has affected decisions on arrest and identifying
suspects. It's also delayed trials. It's been a problem for police and
prosecutors statewide."

Mr. Malloy's 17-member team includes Chief State's Attorney Kevin
Kane, Deputy Attorney General Nora Dannehy and Mr. Lawlor. The team
ought to find out why the lab's problems were, in Mr. Malloy's words,
"allowed to fester all too long." It was probably a matter of scarce
dollars and the inability to make hard decisions.

Mr. Malloy's predecessor, Gov. M. Jodi Rell, and her administration
had to be asleep at the switch. The backlog in cases was created and
grew during her years in office. But it's Mr. Malloy's problem now.
The most important thing is to satisfy the auditors' concerns and
tackle the giant mountain of evidence waiting to be processed.

Increasing any agency's budget is hard to do at a time when employees
are being laid off and the governor and legislature are trying to
eliminate an enormous deficit. But clearly the state police crime lab
has been starved. It needs more professionals to take on the spike in
cases. Anything less undermines the criminal justice process.