Duke Lacrosse Case on "60 Minutes"

By Jeralyn, Section Duke Lacrosse
Posted on Sun Jan 14, 2007 at 05:40:00 PM EST
Tags: Duke Lacrosse, Mike Nifong (all tags)

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The DNA expert in the Duke Lacrosse case will be on "60 Minutes" tonight admitting to "big errors" in the case.

The forensic expert hired by the prosecutor in the Duke rape case says he made a "big error" in judgment by not stating in his report that the only DNA he found on the accuser was from several men who were not on the Duke lacrosse team.

....Meehan acknowledged that he has never omitted potentially exculpatory evidence before. "We haven't done that before," he tells Stahl. "In retrospect, I should have done a better job of conveying that information."

Always good to hear a mea culpa. Now, if we could only get one from D.A. Mike Nifong.

The full transcript is here.

Update: The parents of the players were also on. Their two segments were very powerful. Particularly their recounting of the information that came out in court that DA Mike Nifong knew of the exculpatory DNA tests on April 10 -- which included information that DNA from four males was found in the accuser's anus and panties, and none matched the players -- yet he still indicted them on April 17 and didn't reveal the information for ten months, until forced to by a court.

Also new (to me): CBS has learned the accuser has a history of taking anti-psychotic drugs, including Depakote and Seroquel.

It's very sad that even if the charges are dropped tomorrow, or next month, the maligned reputation of these boys will be with them for years.

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Duke Lacrosse Case on "60 Minutes" | 7 comments (7 topical)

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which just goes to prove (5.00 / 1) (#2)
by cpinva on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 12:00:07 AM EST

that regardless of how infallible the science may be, it still all boils down to the integrity of the people involved.

: Absolutely (none / 0) (#3)
by Speaking Out on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 12:14:25 AM EST

If you haven't already, you should read the article by William Thompson called: Tarnish on the Gold Standard: Recent Problems in Forensic DNA Testing. I highly recommend it.

speaking out (5.00 / 1) (#5)
by cpinva on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 10:09:56 AM EST

very interesting, and scary. i had always assumed (wrongly, as it turns out) that these labs were all subject to rigorous, uniform standards and procedures. as well, i'd assumed (again, wrongly) that they were subject to peer review (audit), to ensure those standards and procedures were being followed consistently.

therein lies a huge part of the problem:

lack of uniform standards and procedures.
lack of independent oversight.

the refusal to release supporting documentation, for independent analysis, should have been a red flag. how else to determine the veracity of the claimed results?

in science, two independent parties, working with the same data, using the same methodology, should achieve the same result. failure to do so should call into the question the validity of either the tests, or the results.

: A take away message (none / 0) (#6)
by Speaking Out on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 10:53:54 AM EST

One of the basic things to remember from Thompson's work is that DNA is a great forensic tool - a true breakthrough for criminology - if and only if it is used properly. The amplification techniques are so powerful today that if the evidence isn't handled and vetted properly the risk of contamination is unacceptably high. As with everything else in this world, the value and quality of new techniques boil down to the human factor. That's why revelations such as these are so alarming. There needs to be accreditation and peer review every step of the way.

Massachusetts DNA Lab Gets Unwanted Attention (none / 0) (#1)
by Speaking Out on Sun Jan 14, 2007 at 11:02:53 PM EST

There seems to be a DNA scandal brewing in Massachusetts. It broke in the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald over the weekend. The Herald names Robert Pino as an administrator at the State Police DNA lab who was suspended with pay for "botching" DNA tests. The Globe offers this hair raising tidbit in the second paragraph of its story:

The administrator, whom officials would not name, also told police and prosecutors that tests in an unspecified number of cases linked DNA recovered at crime scenes to suspects, when in fact they had not, Colonel Mark F. Delaney, superintendent of the State Police, said in a statement.

DNA Expert Theodore Kessis, who has reviewed the DNA evidence in the high profile case of Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Benjamin LaGuer, sees implications in these new developments for LaGuer's claims that a botched DNA test falsely implicated him. The test in LaGuer's case was done at a California lab, but the evidence was catalogued and vetted by the Massachusetts State Police DNA lab, where no attention was paid to obvious signs of contamination danger.

was it prescribed for anti-psychotic behavior? (none / 0) (#4)
by ding7777 on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 05:33:27 AM EST

CBS has learned the accuser has a history of taking anti-psychotic drugs, including Depakote and Seroquel.

Depakote and Seroquel is frequently prescribed for off-label uses such as alcohol/drug dependency and insomnia

i'm pretty sure (none / 0) (#7)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 12:18:50 PM EST

that I read over on the TL Duke blog that not only did

The forensic expert hired by the prosecutor in the Duke rape case [Meehan] says he made a "big error" in judgment by not stating in his report that the only DNA he found on the accuser was from several men who were not on the Duke lacrosse team.

but that one of the several DNA's he identified in the sample that was from men not on the Duke lacrosse team was actually his own!

iow, Meehan contaminated the samples with his own DNA.

Given the limited options of physical sources of DNA, I suppose we can only hope his contamination was epithelial in nature...

What a moroon.