FBI Crime Labs: Faulty Forensics When a suspect is arrested, the community instantly feels more secure. However, what if they were not guilty? FBI crime labs have played an enormous role with the wrongly accused and convicted. The wrongly convicted are affected by multiple inaccuracies: mishandled DNA evidence, uncleanly equipment, and unexperienced lab technicians. Crime labs must be more cautious about keeping evidence isolated from other cases. Retesting evidence, such as fingerprinting and DNA, after a suspect has been convicted would benefit many by keeping innocent people from being imprisoned. The FBI consists of over five hundred lab technicians and scientists working all over the country. They account for forensic exams, witness testimony, and providing a number of trainees…show more content… Unfortunately, a large number of these are suspected to have forensic errors. The justice department has known for years that flawed forensic work could lead to multiple wrongful convictions (Balko). Also, prosecutors refused to inform defendants and their attorneys that the lab results may have been inadequate. Not to mention, officials were not supposed to directly notify defendants in any way. Taxpayer paid employees acquire abundant knowledge about the fact that thousands of innocent people may be imprisoned due to their omissions. (Balko). It has been thought that these witnesses do not want to come forward because so many convictions and people would be in question about a large number of corrupted cases: judges, lab technicians, and prosecutors. All a prosecutor needs is a piece of hair and a misleading eyewitness and someone could easily be wrongfully convicted. (Geddes). In less than a year, there were about four hundred post-conviction DNA exonerations ( Hansen). Multiple cases have been fought solely due to bias. Fifty five cases in question are under investigation due to careless lab work