PCAST Report Calls for Strengthening Forensic Science Legislation Addressing the Issue Introduced in the House and Senate

Statement

Today, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released a report explaining that expert evidence based on a number of forensic tools, such as bite-mark analysis and firearm analysis, lacks adequate scientific underpinnings. PCAST offers recommendations on Federal actions that could be taken to strengthen forensic science and promote its more rigorous use in the courtroom.

In July, Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) introduced H.R. 5795, the "Forensic Science and Standards Act of 2016." Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced a companion bill, S. 3259, in the Senate.

The bill aims to ensure that forensic science and standards are based on strong scientific methodologies and yields evidence that judges, prosecutors, defendants, and juries can fully trust. The legislation is cosponsored by Congressman Marc Veasey (D-TX) and endorsed by the Innocence Project.

Peter Neufeld, Co-Director of the Innocence Project, said, "We applaud Senator Blumenthal and Congresswoman Johnson for taking the lead in ensuring that the forensic tools used by law enforcement across the nation are based on the best possible science and are guided by meaningful and consistent standards. Providing law enforcement with scientifically backed forensic tools that aid in accurately identifying the real assailants is the best way to protect everyone's safety while also insuring that innocent people are not wrongly accused and convicted of crimes they didn't commit. We look forward to working with Members of both chambers to pass this critical legislation. "

Ranking Member Johnson's statement on the legislation is below.

"When I first introduced this legislation in 2012, the Washington Post had just published a series of investigative articles reporting on flawed forensic analyses that may have been responsible for the wrongful conviction in thousands of criminal cases. A July 17, 2013 article in the Post reported that a federal review of old criminal cases undertaken just since their initial reporting had uncovered as many as 27 death penalty convictions in which FBI forensic experts may have presented scientifically invalid testimony as if it was scientific fact. That groundbreaking investigative reporting followed a 2009 National Academies study, Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward, which found that interpretation of forensic evidence is routinely and severely compromised by a lack of supporting science and standards.

"While the legislative wheels have turned too slowly here in Congress, the Administration took these reports and the expert input very seriously, and put into a motion a number of coordinated agency efforts to improve the science and standards underlying forensic evidence. They did so with significant input from stakeholders on all sides of this issue, and have continued to make adjustments along the way.

"H.R. 5795 codifies and institutionalizes the significant progress that has already been made by the agencies in partnership with the stakeholder community. It establishes an interagency forensic science research initiative with a Director based in the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) tasked with developing a unified Federal research strategy and coordinating Federal forensic science research. Because 7 years have passed since the original National Academies report, this legislation requires the Academies to carry out a more detailed gap analysis of research needs and the mix of funding mechanisms that might be most effective at advancing such research, as well as an evaluation of federal research efforts already underway. H.R. 5795 authorizes support for forensic science research at the National Science Foundation (NSF), including support for research centers that would bring together scientists with practitioners. It authorizes the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to establish expert committees to identify and coordinate the development of forensics standards. It also directs NIST to ensure the validity and reliability of forensic science measurements and methods. Finally, the legislation codifies the National Commission on Forensic Science, an advisory committee charged with providing advice to Federal departments, agencies, and offices implementing the unified research strategy and with making recommendations to NIST regarding their standards work as well as to the Attorney General on adoption of standards for implementation in Federal forensic science laboratories.

"I commend NIST, the Department of Justice (DOJ), OSTP, and NSF for their efforts to date, and for their ongoing plans to establish an interagency working group and develop a unified Federal research strategy for forensic science. I intend for this legislation to bolster those efforts, even as some of the details are yet to be worked out. This remains a dialogue in progress and indeed, passions and opinions run deep. However, to help ensure that justice is served, we absolutely need law enforcement, forensic practitioners, judges, and scientists all at the table together. I hope we can all agree that only the best available science belongs in the courtroom, and that the justice system must be just for all, including the wrongfully accused. H.R. 5795 helps to achieve this by making sure our research agencies and DOJ are well-positioned to bring the science into forensic science.

"While I am heartened by the bipartisan support for other aspects of criminal justice reform, I've been disappointed that I have not yet been able to attract bipartisan support for this bill. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle engaged in discussions about criminal justice reform to include in their discussions the critical role that science and standards play in criminal justice. And I urge support for this bill."

Source