Whistleblower Protection Blog : Whistleblower Lawyer & Attorney : National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund : Whistleblower Protection, Fraud Claims : Washington DC

The Washington Post has published year-end articles that highlight three ongoing projects of the National Whistleblower Center.

In an article published on December 26, "Top 10 stories in the federal workforce in 2012", The Washington Post cited the scandal involving FDA electronic spying on its own scientists who blew the whistle on agency misconduct. The Post ranked the FDA electronic spying scandal as the number 9 story that affected the federal workforce this past year. The NWC has been actively supporting the scientists who have sued the FDA for whistleblower retaliation and challenged the constitutionality of the FDA's secret monitoring of the scientists' personal and private emails.  As revealed by the NWC and the whistleblower scientists, the FDA targeted the whistleblowers for electronic surveillance by installing secret spyware on their computers.  The FDA captured confidential emails from the whistleblowers' personal and private email accounts (such as Yahoo and Gmail accounts) and the FDA stole the whistleblowers' confidential communications with their attorneys as well as communications with members of Congress, the Inspector General and others discussing the whistleblowers' allegations of serious wrongdoing by the agency.

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Readers of The Washington Post found out this morning that the FBI and DOJ are launching the largest post-conviction case review in American history.

Readers of the Whistleblower Protection Blog know that this review should have begun twenty years ago when Dr. Frederic Whitehurst first exposed problems in the FBI crime lab.

This year, Dr. Whitehurst’s allegations have come back to haunt the DOJ in a big way. In my April blog post, I expanded on The Washington Post’s breaking story of how the DOJ withheld information for years about thousands of cases tainted by bad forensics.

Dr. Whitehurst has pointed out the possibility that innocent people have been wrongfully locked up, put on death row, or even executed. While the DOJ has promised justice for these victims before, it has kept the results of all investigations a secret and only went so far as to notify a tiny fraction of potential victims that their cases may have been affected.

The good news is that the DOJ has essentially admitted that its investigations thus far were botched, and it will now be involving outside groups like the Innocence Project in another investigation of Dr. Whitehurst’s allegations.

What will be uncovered this time around? Watch this space to find out.

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Washington Post readers found out this morning that the Justice Department has been withholding information for years about hundreds or even thousands of cases that were tainted by faulty forensic work in the FBI Crime Lab. The front-page feature was based in large part on the work of Dr. Frederic Whitehurst, an NWC Board Member who was one of the FBI’s top scientists during the period of misconduct.

For those of you just now learning about Dr. Whitehurst, I highly recommend the following clip from CBS News, recorded in 1998:

CBS News recorded this piece just after the Justice Department Inspector General validated Dr. Whitehurst’s concerns of Crime Lab misconduct. The Inspector General report could have settled the issue, but the problems that Dr. Whitehurst reported, starting with his first whistleblower disclosures over 20 years ago, unfolded into the deep, drawn-out tragedy described in today’s Washington Post.

Read the rest of this post for more details about Dr. Whitehurst’s story and to discover more media coverage from his decades-long attempt to protect American citizens from their government.

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Fred Whitehurst is the whistleblower who revealed that the crime lab at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) failed to live up to its reputation for scientific integrity, and sometimes even resorted to falsifying results. Today Jeff Stein of the Washington Post's Spy Talk blog calls Whitehurst a "hero" and chats with him about his legacy.

Earlier this month, the Post's Keith Alexander wrote about a report of the U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia finding over 100 cases that were tainted by FBI crime lab results that must be reviewed. That report is in response to the exoneration of Donald Gates who spent 28 years in prison for a rape and murder he did not commit.

Stein elicited from Whitehurst how he continues to review FBI records released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to find people who might still be suffering from unreliable crime lab results. Stein does not cover Whitehurst's recent activism to get the U.S. Senate to improve the federal Whistleblower Protection Act. Whitehurst has called on Senators to fix the poison pills in the Senate's current version of S. 372, the supposed Whistleblower Proection Enhancement Act (WPEA). One of those "enhancements" is to repeal the special law that protects whistleblowers at the FBI. Whitehurst has written an open letter to Senators calling on them to fix all the poison pills before they pass S. 372. Follow this link to join him in that call.

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A D.C. Superior Court judge recently released Donald E. Gates, who spent 28 years in prison for a murder and rape he did not commit. The court also expunged Mr. Gates' conviction after it was determined that the government's expert, FBI crime lab examiner Michael P. Malone, lied about the hair and fibers evidence that Malone claimed linked Gates to the rape and murder.

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The National Whistleblowers Legal Defense & Education Fund's teleconference on National Security Whistleblowers is underway.  Shown here are Sibel Edmonds of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, Stephen M. Kohn, Executive Director of the National Whistleblowers Center, David Colapinto, General Counsel of the National Whistleblowers Center, and Mark Zaid of the James Madison Project.  The teleconference also includes participation by telephone of Fred Whitehurst of NWC's Forensic Justice Project, and TSA whistleblower Robert MacLean.

 

 

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Back in 1993, world renowned FBI scientist Dr. Frederic Whitehurst (pictured right) brought to light astonishing deficiencies and scientific fraud at the FBI Crime Lab. These allegations would lead to a massive reform of forensic science at the FBI. The FBI labs were just the beginning, and since that time, Dr. Whitehurst, as director of the National Whistleblowers Center's Forensic Justice Project, has been a vocal advocate for reforms nationwide. In 2007, his work was highlighted in a 60 Minutes/Washington Post Special Investigation, and Congress took action to force the review of the cases of thousands of criminal defendants who had been convicted on potentially tainted bullet-lead evidence.

A new study by the National Academy of Sciences has put forensic science and crime laboratories back in the news, and not in a good way. The two-year congressionally funded report, issued February 18th, details the need for reform in our nation's forensic science programs. Specifically, it calls for an independent oversight organization called the National Institute of Forensic Science. Among other deficiencies, the report finds:

• hundreds of thousands of backlogged an delayed requests for analysis
• understaffing at 80% of the nation's crime labs.
• a lack of certification and accreditation standards leading to inconsistencies between federal, state, local governments.
• hundreds of convictions have been based on flawed science

These findings are extremely troubling, and we are happy that Congress took the initiative to fund this study. Now the New York Times is reporting that the Senate Judiciary Committee is planning to hold hearings on this report, and we believe that there would be no one better to testify on these issues than Dr. Whitehurst.

 

Digg This Story Here

 

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Today's Washington Post has an update on the FBI Bullet-Lead debacle. Lee Wayne Hunt , a North Carolina man who has maintained his innocence since being convicted of murder in 1986, is appealing his case to the North Carolina Supreme Court. 

This is not Mr. Hunt's first appeal, but this time he is doing so with the help of information obtained by the National Whistleblower Center's Forensic Justice Project. The FJP's lawsuits against the FBI produced a wealth of documents detailing how thousands of cases, including Mr. Hunt's, were prosecuted on the basis of a faulty forensic science known as bullet-lead analysis.

Dr. Frederic Whitehurst, a former FBI Special Agent and forensic expert, is the Executive Director of the FJP.

• Click here to see the website devoted to the Washington Post / 60 Minutes investigation on Bullet-Lead.
  
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Yesterday, John Solomon of the Washington Post reported that the Senate Judiciary Committee is requiring that the FBI turn over records related to all criminal cases in which bullet-lead analysis was presented as evidence. There are over 2,500 such cases nationwide.

Dr. Frederic Whitehurst, the Executive Director of the Forensic Justice Project (a project of the National Whistleblower Center) has filed three lawsuits against the FBI since 1996 in an effort to obtain release of these records. Unfortunately, the FBI has never been fully compliant with the FJPs FOIA requests, and has engaged in extensive feet-dragging and stonewalling, even so far as demanding that the FJP pay over $70,000 for access to these public records.  

The Senate's action is in response to years of work by the FJP, which led to a joint investigation by the Washington Post and 60 Minutes.

 

Click here to read the article

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On November 18, 2007, the results of an investigation into the operations of the FBI crime lab were printed in the Washington Post and broadcast on CBS News 60 Minutes. The Forensic Justice Project (“FJP”), a project of the National Whistleblower Center, in Washington, D.C., and FJP Executive Director Dr. Frederic Whitehurst, cooperated with the joint Post-60 Minutes investigation by providing records released by the FBI to FJP and Dr. Whitehurst under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”). These FBI FOIA records document the serious misconduct and other problems reported in the joint Post-60 Minutes investigation.

By way of background, since 1996 it has taken no fewer than three separate lawsuits filed on behalf of either Dr. Frederic Whitehurst or the Forensic Justice Project (or both) under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain records regarding FBI Laboratory scandals. In each and every case, the FBI has delayed and stonewalled the release of records documenting misconduct in the FBI Lab, including the problems identified in the Washington Post-60 Minutes investigation.

The FOIA cases are:

1. Whitehurst v. FBI, Civil Action No. 96-572 (GK) (D.D.C.):

This was the original case filed on behalf of Dr. Whitehurst and it alleged that the FBI was refusing to process FOIA requests made on Dr. Whitehurst’s behalf in 1993 and 1995. These requests sought access to records about Dr. Whitehurst’s whistleblower allegations about serious problems in the FBI Lab, which also became the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) review of the FBI Lab. Dr. Whitehurst’s lawsuit also alleged that records about Whitehurst and his allegations that were responsive to the FOIA requests were being selectively released by the FBI to criminal defendants, the courts, members of Congress, but were being denied to Dr. Whitehurst.

On February 5, 1997, Judge Gladys Kessler ordered the FBI to release all records responsive to these requests. See the order here

This lawsuit was later expanded to include Dr. Whitehurst’s FOIA requests for copies of the Justice Department’s OIG report and work product.

Ultimately, this lawsuit was settled and part of the settlement covered granting Dr. Whitehurst a fee waiver and access to thousands of pages of records on his whistleblower allegations and the FBI Lab scandal.

2. Forensic Justice Project v. FBI, Civil Action No. 04-1415 (PLF) (D.D.C.):

This FOIA case against the FBI was filed on behalf of the FJP in 2004 and requested access to records of various FBI Lab examiners who had testified in criminal cases regarding bullet lead. The case against the FBI was settled in March 2006, with the FBI agreeing to grant a fee waiver and provide the FJP with the names of defendants and case numbers of cases in which these examiners testified.

This FOIA case also was filed by the FJP against the DOJ for the records of DOJ Criminal Division Brady Task Force review of the FBI Lab scandal and Dr. Whitehurst’s whistleblower allegations. The FOIA case against DOJ on the Brady Task Force records was settled on December 9, 2005, with the DOJ agreeing to grant a fee waiver to FJP and produce on a rolling basis records from the Brady Task Force review.

The FJP provided all of these records to the Washington Post and these FBI records on bullet lead provided important leads for the Washington Post-60 Minutes investigation.

3. Forensic Justice Project and Whitehurst v. FBI and DOJ, Civil Action No. 06-1001 (RWR) (D.D.C.):

This FOIA action was filed in 2006 and is currently pending. See the Complaint 

The FOIA request was filed with the FBI in September 2005 seeking copies of all records related to the comparative bullet lead cases and records related to the decision to stop using comparative bullet lead analysis that were referred to in a September 2, 2005 FBI press release. See the Original FOIA Request With FBI Press Release Attached

The FBI has refused to grant a fee waiver forcing the FJP and Dr. Whitehurst to appeal and then go to court. Reporter John Solomon of the Washington Post also wrote a letter informing the FBI and DOJ that he was interested in reviewing the records requested by FJP and Whitehurst. In February 2007 the FBI acknowledged that there exist approximately 250,000 records responsive to this request but the FBI demands that Dr. Whitehurst and the FJP pay approximately $70,000 to process this FOIA request.

The records responsive to this request are the actual case file records for all of the comparative bullet lead cases handled by the FBI Lab based on flawed science prior to the FBI’s decision to stop using comparative bullet lead analysis in criminal cases. In its September 2, 2005 Press Release, the FBI itself identified more than 500 cases where convictions were obtained using the scientifically flawed comparative bullet lead analysis. In addition, the FBI identified thousands of other criminal cases where comparative bullet lead analysis had been used prior to its discontinuance.

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