EXPERTS are regularly bullied into making up evidence by
the police and lawyers, according to one of Britain's leading forensic
scientists.
Dr Zakaria Erzinclioglu, a senior research associate at Cambridge
University and the director of the Forensic Science Research Centre at
Durham University, claims, in a book, that "new and unhealthy
pressures" have been brought to bear on forensic scientists because of
the pressure on police to secure convictions. The result, he says, is that
he has witnessed 48 miscarriages of justice in one year.
The allegations, made in his book Maggots, Murder and Men, are being
taken so seriously that Lord Justice Auld is examining them in his review
of the court system and will report to the Lord Chancellor in January. Dr
Erzinclioglu, who has worked on investigations into murder cases for more
than 20 years, is lobbying for an independent state-funded body to
administer the pay of forensic scientists.
At the moment they are paid by the lawyers using them as witnesses -
with the result, he says, that they are encouraged to lie in order to
satisfy their paymasters. Dr Erzinclioglu said: "Forensic scientists
should not be subject to financial or emotional pressures and their
independence must be guaranteed and defined in law so that, like judges,
their neutrality and objectivity can be upheld in every way.
"Unfortunately at the present time forensic science evidence is
paid for by people who are, by the very nature of the system, biased, even
if they are sincerely trying to arrive at the truth. Police officers and
lawyers are interested but not, with the best will in the world,
disinterested, parties."
Dr Erzinclioglu said that he has been pressurised on a number of
occasions by the police and lawyers to give the evidence that they want to support
their case and because he refused he has not been employed by those people
again.
He said: "One solicitor asked me to make up an answer. I know the
kind of pressure the police bring to force you into a certain kind of
investigation and there can be financial pressure for special witnesses to
say certain things because their livelihood depends on it.
"Each forensic scientist is a narrow specialist and he needs all
the cases that come his way, and if you fail to satisfy a particular lawyer
he is not going to consult you again."
Dr Erzinclioglu specialises in examining the maggots on corpses as a
means of determining where and when someone was killed. As the lifetime of
a maggot is only five days, it can often be the most accurate way of
pinpointing the time at which someone has died.
In addition, because there are 500 different species of the grub in
Britain, and given that corpses are often moved from one location to
another, they can also form vital evidence in indicating where someone was
killed.
Dr Erzinclioglu has a doctorate in maggots, but he said many of the
"experts" brought in by the police and lawyers are charlatans:
"There is nothing to prevent a person who is totally unqualified as a
scientist from practising as a forensic consultant."
Stephen Kramer, QC, the chairman of the Criminal Bar Association said:
"The best experts are the independent ones and you have no guarantee
by having just one expert - as would be the case if this new system was
introduced - that you will get the right result. Having two experts is
frequently quite useful as a cross-check and enables the jury to be able to
conclude whichever way they want. The experts, after all, frequently
agree."
5
November 2000: DNA test advances leave 800 killers fearing knock at door
2
November 2000: DNA tests bring killer to justice after five years
1
September 2000: £109m to expand DNA database
30
April 1998: 'Quack' forensic scientists 'pose threat to justice'
16
May 1996: Howard is accused of ignoring lab warnings
