FBI errors cast doubt on TWENTY-SEVEN death penalty convictions

 Willie Jerome Manning 

Charles Irvin Fain, Anthony Hicks & Jimmy Ray Bromgard 

The FBI is reviewing 2,000 cases convicted on hair samples after it has emerged that there has been widespread errors in forensic testing and how the evidence was portrayed in court. 

As many as 27 prisoners facing the death penalty may have been wrongfully convicted along with potentially thousands of others across the country. 

Since the 1980s, hundreds of convictions have been overturned on improper forensic science - which includes bite marks, blood analysis and shoe prints along with hair samples.

Forensic testing has never been proved 100 per cent accurate by science - but at times, was presented by experts in court as if conclusive. 

A current federal review of unprecedented scale is examining 2,000 cases from 1985 to 2000 where the FBI submitted testimony or reports on hair analysis. 

Cases where the individual is facing execution will be given priority. 

The grievous errors could now potentially throw an unknown number of convictions across the country into doubt as 95 per cent of violent crimes are handled by local and state jurisdictions. 

Hair samples cannot be used to positively identify a perpetrator - however when some FBI experts gave evidence at trial, they led jurors to believed that hair analysis could provide definite matches to suspects.

The most recent case where hair analysis has been brought into question is that of Willie Jerome Manning, 44, who was hours before his execution in Mississippi for the murders of two students when the FBI cast doubt on his conviction. 

Federal investigators admitted that expert evidence given during his 1994 murder trial pushed the limits of science and were 'invalid'.

Manning was convicted and sentenced to die by lethal injection for shooting dead two Mississippi State University students in 1992.

His sentence was due to be carried out at the Mississippi State Penitentiary on May 3 after 19 years on death row. 

However in letters to state officials, the FBI and Department of Justice said an FBI examiner had overstated conclusions about a hair found in the car of one of the victims by suggesting it came from an African American.

Manning is black and the two victims, Tiffany Miller, 22, and Jon Steckler, 19, were white. The hair sample was the only physical evidence linking Manning to the crime scene.

He has always maintained his innocence.

Manning's lawyers have asked the Mississippi Supreme Court to halt his lethal injection in light of the revelations, and the Mississippi Innocence Project filed a lawsuit to preserve the hair and other evidence for DNA testing even if Manning is executed.

Charles Irvin Fain was given the death penalty for the kidnap, rape and murder of a young girl in 1982 in Nampa, Idaho.

Fain was originally questioned after he was reportedly seen near a river where her body was found. 

He was asked to submit hair samples - which the FBI found were similar to those found at the crime scene.  A hair analyst later testified that Fain's hair shared an uncommon trait as that found at the scene - despite there not being scientific evidence on the frequency of varying characteristics in hair. 

Fain has always maintained his innocence - and in 2001, DNA proved he was telling the truth. 

Mitochondrial DNA testing conducted on appeal showed that pubic hairs found in the girl's underwear did not belong to Fain. 

He was released in 2001 - having served 18 years for heinous crimes he did not commit.

Anthony Hicks was stopped for a traffic violation in 1991 when he was charged with robbing and sexually assaulting a woman in her Wisconsin home. 

Another inmate thought he looked similar to a police sketch of the suspect leading to the charge - before hair fibers were found at the scene.

Forensic testing revealed that they were 'consistent' with Hicks. An analyst also said that a Caucasian hair found in his pants was 'consistent' with the victim's hair. 

He was sentenced to 20 years in jail. 

After serving five years, Hicks was allowed access to his evidence and had it DNA tested.

He was exonerated in April 1997 after the genetic tests proved he could not have committed the crime. Hicks received $25,000 in compensation.

Jimmy Ray Bromgard was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the brutal rape of an eight-year-old girl in 1987 - a crime he did not commit.

He was convicted after a witness who said she was '65 per cent sure' pointed to him as the perpetrator. 

Hair fibers taken from the victim's bed at her home in Billings, Montana were found to be indistinguishable from Bromgard's hair.

However an inept forensic analyst told a jury
that there was less than a one-in-ten-thousand chance that the hairs did not belong to Bromgard.

This was based on a complete lie as no standard exists to match hair to that microscopic level.

Bromgard, who was 18 at the time and also burdened by a useless defense attorney, told the court that he was at home and asleep when the crime occurred.

He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in 1987. He spent almost 15 years in prison before he was turned down for release by the parole board because he refused to take part in a sex offenders' program in jail. 

DNA testing of semen samples from the victim's underwear were found not to belong to Bromgard.

He was freed in 2002 and has received compensation for the miscarriage of justice. 

The real perpetrator has never been found. 

                                                                           Source for case studies: The Innocence Project

WoW! This is so sad. People sending the better part of their lives in Jail for a crime they know completely nothing about. Lord please don't let us be at the wrong place at the wrong time. In Jesus name. Amen.

Because that seems to be the only crime these men committed.