Houston to Bring in Investigator for Crime Lab Mess

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Houston to Bring in Investigator for Crime Lab Mess

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HOUSTON (Reuters) - An independent expert will be brought in to investigate the Houston Police Department crime lab after new discoveries of mislabeled and misplaced evidence at the troubled facility, officials said on Tuesday.
The lab has been under fire since a 2002 audit found serious problems with DNA results that may have led to mistaken criminal convictions.

The scandal deepened last week when 280 mislabeled cartons containing evidence from 8,000 cases dating back 25 years were found, officials said.

The controversy is being closely watched because more death sentences have been handed out in Harris County, which includes Houston, than in most states, and most of those prosecutions have been based on evidence from the police lab.

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=6118423