FBI bullet-lead analysis used for 40 years discredited

[Cavalier Knight]

The science, known as comparative bullet-lead analysis, was first used after President John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963. The technique used chemistry to link crime-scene bullets to ones possessed by suspects on the theory that each batch of lead had a unique elemental makeup.

In 2004, however, the nation's most prestigious scientific body concluded that variations in the manufacturing process rendered the FBI's testimony about the science "unreliable and potentially misleading." Specifically, the National Academy of Sciences said that decades of FBI statements to jurors linking a particular bullet to those found in a suspects gun or cartridge box were so overstated that such testimony should be considered "misleading under federal rules of evidence."

ARTICLE (.PDF)

 

[NukemJim]

Old news, check the date.

NukemJim

 

[ccd]

What the Feds realize they have a problem and are slow to correct or admit it? I'm shocked. Sucks to be sitting in Jail waiting for some bureaucrat to fix their agency's problems. The lawyers for teh convicted should be able to either get the convictions thrown out or obtain retrials pretty quickly.

With the recent recommendation by the scientific panel against keeping data on every new gun sold in the US, because it would create too many false positives; it will not take too long for that ballistic evidence to be challenged in court also. Whether they are successful or not is another thing.

 

[GRIZ22]

The lawyers for teh convicted should be able to either get the convictions thrown out or obtain retrials pretty quickly.


I doubt that anyone has been cinvicted solely on bullet lead analysis. This analysis would be circumstantial (yes your honor that lead alloy was used in 500,000 other bullets in that lot). Yes you can get convictions if you have enough circunmstantial evidence but one facet (in this case bullet lead analysis) is not going to make or break a case.