Here's Your FBI

The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000.

Of 28 examiners with the FBI Laboratory’s microscopic hair comparison unit, 26 overstated forensic matches in ways that favored prosecutors in more than 95 percent of the 268 trials reviewed so far.

[...]

The review confirmed that FBI experts systematically testified to the near-certainty of “matches” of crime-scene hairs to defendants, backing their claims by citing incomplete or misleading statistics drawn from their case work.

In reality, there is no accepted research on how often hair from different people may appear the same.

[...]

In the District, the only jurisdiction where defenders and prosecutors have re-investigated all FBI hair convictions, three of seven defendants whose trials included flawed FBI testimony have been exonerated through DNA testing since 2009, and courts have exonerated two more men. All five served 20 to 30 years in prison for rape or murder.

[...]

The cases include those of 32 defendants sentenced to death. Of those, 14 have been executed or died in prison.

[...]

Four defendants were previously exonerated.

[...]

In a statement, the FBI and Justice Department vowed to continue to devote resources to address all cases and said they “are committed to ensuring that affected defendants are notified of past errors and that justice is done in every instance.

  WaPo

Somewhat difficult for the 14.

And, by the way, there are 2,500 "targeted cases involving an FBI hair match."

Among states, only California and Texas specifically allow appeals when experts recant or scientific advances undermine forensic evidence at trial.

Unbelievable.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.