DOVER, Del. (AP) - Delaware is joining other states in reviewing criminal convictions involving potentially questionable hair evidence following the FBI’s acknowledgement of a decades-long pattern of flawed testimony about the strength of microscopic hair analysis.
The attorney general’s office said Monday that a nonprofit group called the Prosecutors’ Center for Excellence began working last month to review criminal convictions prior to 2000 that involved FBI testimony on hair evidence.
Officials say similar audits are being conducted in other states, including Texas, Massachusetts, and North Carolina.
The U.S. Justice Department revealed in 2015 that FBI experts had overstated the strength of evidence involving microscopic hair analysis in hundreds of cases dating back decades. The FBI now acknowledges that the science is not conclusive and uses it only in conjunction with DNA testing.
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