FBI: Innocent Man Spends Nearly 30 Years in Prison After FBI Mixes Up His Hair With Dog’s

Recently the FBI revealed that nearly all of its hair experts were guilty of providing false testimony during trials. One man who was sentenced to prison after flawed testimony from two of the FBI’s experts was Santae Tribble, who served 28 years in jail after the FBI mixed up his hair with that of a dog.

In 1978, when Tribble was only 17, he was accused of killing and robbing a cab driver in front of his Washington D.C. home. Even though Tribble and those who knew him maintained his innocence, he was found guilty by a jury in only 40 minutes.

Tribble’s conviction hinged on the testimony of two hair experts who testified that hair at the scene matched Tribble’s. Independent experts later determined that the FBI hair experts had been mistaken in their determination that the strand of hair at the scene matched Tribble’s. In fact, according to the independent investigators, hair found at the scene belonged to a dog.

“Such is the true state of hair microscopy. Two FBI-trained analysts… could not even distinguish human hairs from canine hairs,” said Sandra K. Levick, Tribble’s lawyer.

After almost 30 years behind bars, Tribble was finally exonerated. Given the bombshell discovery that FBI hair experts provided false testimony for years, his case is not the only one to be reviewed and/or appealed.

Approximately 26 of 28 examiners in the FBI’s microscopic hair comparison unit overstated evidence, found the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Innocence Project. Mistakes that were made by examiners favored prosecutors 95 percent of the time.

Among the 268 trials reviewed so far are 32 cases in which defendants were sentenced to death. Fourteen of those defendants have either been executed or died in prison.

According to a statement provided to the Washington Post, the FBI and DOJ “are committed to ensuring that affected defendants are notified of past errors and that justice is done in every instance. The Department and the FBI are also committed to ensuring the accuracy of future hair analysis testimony, as well as the application of all disciplines of forensic science.”

http://yourblackworld.net/2015/04/27/innocent-man-spends-nearly-30-years-in-prison-after-fbi-mixes-up-his-hair-with-dogs/