Under the Microscope: Strategies for Implementing State & Local Microscopic Hair Comparison Reviews

In 2012, the FBI and DOJ, in conjunction with the Innocence Project and NACDL, began a review of criminal cases in which FBI microscopic hair comparison analysts gave testimony or conducted lab work. As a result of that effort, the FBI has admitted that the agents in the elite Hair and Fiber Unit of the FBI Crime Lab gave erroneous testimony in at least 90% of the hundreds of microscopic hair comparison cases reviewed. Although the results of the FBI Review are staggering, they only represent a fraction of the problem caused by flawed microscopic hair comparison analysis testimony.