The Innocence Project: Inaccurate Hair Analysis
There are people that have been exonerated based on new evidence of innocence. These people may be put on death row due to the wrongful conviction of a crime. The Innocence Project is a public policy organization that is dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals, such as Michael Blair, through hair analysis testing. The questions asked may be what crime Blair commited, who was involved, what led to the wrongful conviction, and how Blair was exonerated for the crime he had committed.
The Innocence Project managed Michael Blair’s criminal case to prove his innocence. A Seven-year-old, Ashley Estell, was kidnapped while playing at Carpenter Park in Plano, Texas. Ashley’s family was at the park for their son’s soccer game when the disappearance occurred (Gross). Initially, evidence was found and proved that Michael Blair may have perpetrated the crime. This pointed to Michael being guilty, which led to imprisonment and harsh punishments for the
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Many techniques in labs at the time were poorly used, which was why Blair was wrongfully prosecuted for the crime law enforcement thought he had commit. Therefore, labs were held responsible for the false tests that led to suspects being imprisoned (Scheck). New technology, along with improved techniques has made it possible to get those falsely imprisoned, exonerated and to find the real suspects. Conventional hair analysis, where only one strand is compared to another is now considered as junk evidence (Scheck). Instead, a new technique where mitochondrial DNA is extracted directly from hair shafts is more accurate. This is the specific test that confirmed the hair at the crime scene, was neither Mr. Blairs or Ashleys (Scheck). Blair was exonerated due to corrected hair analysis. Although, some people still believe that Blair was involved in the crime and shouldn’t have been exonerated. Blair was then exonerated due to hair
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