Bullet lead analysis exposed as unscientific

Listen to this article

A forensic tool employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in approximately 2,500 criminal cases was recently discontinued because of the revelation that the analysis was invalid.

While an FBI release noted that in “less than 20 percent” of the cases where bullet lead examinations were conducted, results were introduced into evidence at trial, the agency conceded that thousands of convictions may have relied on the flawed analysis.

On Nov. 19, the Innocence Network and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers announced that they will form the Joint Comparative Bullet Lead Analysis Task Force.

According to Keith A. Findley, a member of the task force and co-founder of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, the objective will be to collect cases where bullet lead analysis was done by the FBI and try and find instances where testimony or evidence led to convictions.

“The FBI has agreed to work cooperatively with the task force and provide us with information on all the cases,” said Findley, who noted that specifics of the task force are still being addressed.

Any connection to cases in Wisconsin is unknown at this point, according to Findley, but certainly a possibility.

“Right now the task force is still being set up and there is the potential that there could be a Wisconsin connection, but right know we don’t know for sure what geographic areas this will affect,” said Findley.

Bullet lead analysis was conducted throughout the 1980s up until it was permanently discontinued in 2005, according to the FBI release. The examinations used bullet fragments in lieu of firearm recovery at a crime scene.

The analysis was used to compare traces of elements like copper or arsenic found in bullet particles used in a particular crime, to those associated with potential suspects.

A recent investigation by The Washington Post and CBS’s “60 Minutes” revealed that potentially thousands of convictions across the nation may have been secured based on false FBI testimony about the ability to connect bullets used in one crime to a small number of other bullets manufactured around the same time.

“It’s hard to know how many people this will impact and as far as I know, the FBI were the only players in this type of analysis,” said Findley. “It’s certainly one of great concern for people who were wrongly convicted because of this bad evidence.”