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78R8989 JLZ-D
By: Dutton H.C.R. No. 93
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, In recent months, the Houston Police Department
Crime Laboratory has come under intense public scrutiny by
lawmakers, law enforcement and criminal justice officials, and the
media, bringing to light a longstanding and disturbing pattern of
irregularities in its handling of evidence in numerous criminal
cases; and
WHEREAS, A state audit conducted last year by the Texas
Department of Public Safety (DPS) found a number of serious
shortcomings, including inadequately trained staff, failure to
file standard scientific protocols, and tolerating for at least
five years a leaking roof that could have led to evidence being
contaminated with rainwater; the DPS audit determined that the
lab's procedures for DNA analysis failed to meet accredited
industry standards, including benchmarks established by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation to ensure quality work at DNA
laboratories; and
WHEREAS, Testifying before a hearing of the General
Investigating Committee of the Texas House of Representatives, a
DPS expert cited the Houston lab as among the worst that she had
seen in nearly 20 years of auditing DNA labs worldwide; a former
Harris County DNA analyst corroborated those allegations, saying
that she had found at least one serious problem in each of 15 cases
that she reviewed in the early to middle 1990s; and
WHEREAS, The problems with the Houston laboratory are not
unique; indeed, one study found that defective and fraudulent
science ranked fifth among the leading causes of wrongful
conviction; what makes this particular situation particularly
disturbing is the egregious nature of the defects and the extent to
which these defects are likely to have contributed to a widespread
miscarriage of justice; and
WHEREAS, More than 200 Harris County death penalty cases are
currently under review because of the possibility of faulty
evidence from the lab, and 32 persons convicted with questionable
DNA evidence already have been executed; evidence used in more than
20 cases, including seven involving defendants now on death row, is
now being retested because of problems with the Houston crime lab;
and
WHEREAS, The Houston Police Department voluntarily closed
the crime lab in January after the lab had failed the DPS audit, and
the department has asked the National Forensic Science Technology
Center to conduct a second audit to help determine whether the
closure should become permanent; the police department also
announced that it would conduct an internal affairs investigation
into employee misconduct and policy violations at the lab; and
WHEREAS, The Harris County District Attorney's Office,
responding to media attention on the situation, has undertaken an
unprecedented review of all criminal cases in which evidence was
processed by the crime lab; however, legislators have received
indications that the district attorney's office had known for some
time of the irregularities at the lab; and
WHEREAS, Given the gravity of the consequences for countless
defendants in previous criminal trials whose fate rests with a
proper review of their cases and the evidence presented therein, a
self-investigation by the police department and a review by the
district attorney's office are insufficient; the nature and
quantity of irregularities that have been brought to light demand
an outside, independent, and thorough review to ensure that justice
is truly served; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the 78th Legislature of the State of Texas
hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to
request that the U.S. Department of Justice conduct a thorough
investigation into the irregularities found in the work of the
Houston Police Department Crime Laboratory and that the department
conduct a review of past criminal cases in which the outcome might
have depended on evidence processed by the laboratory; and, be it
further
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the
senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the
Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this
resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.