Tainting Evidence : Behind the Scandals at the FBI Crime Lab [Hardcover]

John Kelly (Author), Phillip Wearne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 1998

Since the 1930s, the FBI's crime-fighting reputation has been built, in large part, on its forensic laboratory. In 1997 that reputation was shattered by an 18-month government investigation that upheld allegations of serious malpractice. Now, "Tainting Evidence" shows that those revelations were just the tip of the iceberg. With evidence culled from thousands of pages of FBI memos, lab reports, internal investigations and dozens of interviews, including exclusive conversations with lab chemist Frederic Whitehurst, the FBI's first whistleblower, authors John Kelly and Phillip Wearne demonstrate how the FBI lab has compromised the forensic work in some of the biggest cases of the century: the Oklahoma City bombing, the Unabomber case, the 0. J. Simpson prosecution and the World Trade Center explosion. Hundreds of criminal cases may have to be reopened.

The details exposed here are shocking: the FBI explosives expert on the World Trade Center investigation who repeatedly misled the jury; hair and fiber evidence not present at a multiple-murder crime scene that somehow materialized in the hands of the FBI lab four years later; crucial chemical analyses that were never recorded in the Unabomber investigation. The list of documented instances of malpractice, flawed science, doctored lab reports, posed evidence, woeful investigative work and false testimony is truly stunning.

"Tainting Evidence" shows that while always denying it, the FBI was well aware of the inadequacies of its lab; how forensic science can be used to hinder rather than help the search for truth; how the FBI's famed investigators can never be trusted to investigate themselves.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Two crusading journalists investigate the FBI's forensic crime lab and deliver a strong indictment against what goes on there. Federal agents regularly dupe the public into accepting "scientific" findings that aren't based upon science at all, they charge, and the lab is infected with a troubling culture where truth plays second fiddle to prosecutorial interests, with information potentially useful to defendants withheld. The book's hero is FBI-scientist-turned-whistle-blower Frederic Whitehurst, and most of the chapters focus on the crime lab's controversial role in high-profile cases involving O.J. Simpson, the World Trade Center bombing, the Unabomber, and others. The authors at times appear to have a pro-prosecution bias of their own, but their conclusions shouldn't be ignored. They probably won't be; as one attorney tells the authors, "No defense lawyer in the country is going to take what the FBI lab says at face value anymore." --John J. Miller

From Publishers Weekly

The media has familiarized the public with the vocabulary of forensic science: DNA identification, fingerprinting, bomb signatures, etc. However, as journalists Kelly and Wearne make clear in this expose of the FBI crime lab, some of these practices are dubious at best, and any of them is only as effective as the scientist behind it. The book was prompted by the complaints lodged against the bureau by FBI crime-lab scientist Fred Whitehurst, and the congressional inquiries that arose from his whistle-blowing. The problem Whitehurst identified is twofold. First, the bureau allegedly puts so much faith in its reputation that it refuses to submit to external certification even as it fails to maintain state-of-the-art labs. Second, the FBI lab is said to operate as a good-ol'-boy network, promoting unqualified agents and often taking direction from field investigators. Kelly and Wearne detail how the FBI crime lab's alleged arrogance and incompetence has, they say, affected the investigation of six high-profile cases, with apparent offenses ranging from laziness and bungling in the Unabomber, O.J. Simpson and Oklahoma City cases to possible perjury in the World Trade Center bombing case and conspiracy to withhold evidence in the investigation of the FBI assault on Ruby Ridge and a series of bomb attacks on federal judges in the late 1980s. Their book is painstakingly researched and highly detailed, but the abundance of information?some of it shocking?doesn't excuse its bone-dry, tedious presentation. In any case, this volume belongs on the reading list of any criminal defense attorney as a road map to the successful cross-examination of forensics experts.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; First Edition edition (June 2, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684846462
• ISBN-13: 978-0684846460
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #915,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Accurate portrayal of systemic problems in FBI LAB, September 1, 1998

By 

Dr. Ronald K. Wright (Turtletown, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Tainting Evidence : Behind the Scandals at the FBI Crime Lab (Hardcover)

As a forensic pathologist who was accurately quoted in the book, my read is that the authors got it right. This is a valuable book whose publication will hopefully start the FBI lab on the road to correction of its intrinsic problems. These problems are: 1. Public relations are all that is important, scientific accuracy is insignificant. 2. Quality control should not be required of the FBI lab as they believe they are always right. 3. Convictions are the measure of performance, irrespective of whether the scientific evidence supports convictions or not. I would urge everyone to read this book, whether in law enforcement or not. If this was required reading for all judges and jurors, there would be less wrongful convictions.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars God Bless America, February 28, 2002

By 

Cathleen M. Walker "geminiwalker" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Tainting Evidence : Behind the Scandals at the FBI Crime Lab (Hardcover)

How many people remember when this report hit the news? How many people have thought about it since? (show of hands) Since then, how many times have we continued to seek justice utilizing this overblown, corrupt, self-serving organ of the Federal Government? Would you want their evidence at *your* trial, should you for some inauspicious reason find yourself at the wrong end of the military-industrial-prison-pharmaceutical-industry? Read this book and I'm sure you will say, out loud, in unison, with me -- I think not! Nothing has changed since that report hit the airwaves, the FBI continues to fly by the seat of its pants, making things up as it goes along, following orders in order to make sure the prisons are full of the candidates properly chosen by those it *is* accountable to...and it hasn't been accountable to the American people for a very long time. And to think we are basing a *war* on their "evidence" -- and it's a wonder I don't believe a word of it. Frankly, this book is only the tip of the iceberg in FBI complicity and complacence in a world that has gone crazy -- but it's a very important tip. This book is very thorough, documented, professionally written and very readable. A must for the library of any professed patriot.

You might want to particularly consider this book in light of the Jeffrey MacDonald case, and know that there is far, far more there than meets the eye.

God bless America.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting to read, well organized, and alarming., July 11, 1998

By 

Douglas Valentine - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tainting Evidence : Behind the Scandals at the FBI Crime Lab (Hardcover)

Tainting Evidence is easy to read, well organized, and alarming. The book gives many new insights into our judicial system and after reading the book, the reader will wonder how many innocent people have been falsely convicted by the FBI based on evidence the FBI has tainted in its crime lab...But this book proves the FBI is solely for the prosecution, often in total disregard of peoples' rights, sometimes even inventing evidence in order to put an innocent person in prison.

For those of us not involved in law enforcement or the judicial system, this book is must reading. There are a number of well-known cases which are used to show how the FBI taints evidence, but it was the story of Ruby Ridge , in particular, that brought tears to my eyes.

This book is important because what happens in these famous cases happens on a daily basis to people like you and me. Read it and learn a valuable lesson.

Alice Valentine