RALEIGH -- The State Bureau of Investigation, with the credibility of its crime lab under fire, is starting work to sanction a private crime lab to analyze DNA evidence in criminal cases.
The move comes amid requests from prosecutors and defense lawyers to use private labs to do the work traditionally performed by the SBI. With approval from the SBI and a court order from a judge, private labs such as LabCorp could perform analysis that the SBI can then enter into a national DNA database.
SBI lab officials have received one such court order from Durham and have started approving LabCorp to perform the work. It is possible, but not certain, that they will use LabCorp on other cases, said spokeswoman Noelle Talley.
The SBI has been under fire since February, when three judges exonerated Greg Taylor, in part because an SBI analyst withheld test results indicating a substance on Taylor's SUV wasn't blood. The News & Observer reported last month that some SBI analysts push beyond the bounds of accepted science to deliver results pleasing to prosecutors.
An audit commissioned by Attorney General Roy Cooper found a longtime practice in the blood analysis unit of withholding results of more sophisticated blood tests in reports prepared for prosecutors.
A legislative committee is keeping tabs on problems and progress at the SBI. The group met Thursday to hear about crime lab accreditation and about national reforms in the field of forensic science.
Mike Budzynski, head of the forensic science unit at the crime lab, told the committee that the SBI was in the process of approving LabCorp to perform DNA analysis in pending criminal cases and for post-conviction appeals. The SBI is the gatekeeper of outsourcing, because as North Carolina's designated manager of the national DNA database, it must vouch for the quality of the work before uploading profiles into the national bank.
The database includes the DNA profiles of convicted criminals. Those profiles can be checked against evidence in new or unsolved cases.
Long process
Budzynski said that approving a private lab is involved and laborious.
"If we do anything wrong setting up this contract ... every profile put in the system since the last inspection gets taken out and never put back in," Budzynski told the committee.
LabCorp, with offices across the state, already often performs DNA analysis commissioned by defense attorneys to double-check the work of the SBI. And, several years ago, when the SBI tried to clear a backlog of rape kit tests, private labs such as LabCorp lent a hand.
In recent weeks, some have pressed SBI leaders to turn to LabCorp again, as a source to do original analysis in crimes.
Christine Mumma, a committee member and executive director of the N.C. Center on Actual Innocence, advised SBI Director Greg McLeod several weeks ago to funnel work to LabCorp to avoid a backlog while the SBI focused on correcting recently disclosed problems.
"At times like this, we want to make sure we have alternative outlets to prevent any slowdown in the system," Mumma said in an interview.
John Snyder, district attorney in Union County, agreed, saying it makes sense to take advantage of an efficient, well-regarded laboratory in North Carolina.
"This should have been done a while ago," Snyder said in an interview. "The whole point is to get back the public's trust. This puts us on that road."
