From the Asheville Citizen-Times (8/22/10): A report revealing State Bureau of Investigation agents overstated blood evidence in dozens of cases could force North Carolina to close its crime lab and change the agency's secretive policies, defense attorneys and a former prosecutor said.
The state-ordered report found agents repeatedly aided prosecutors in obtaining convictions during a 16-year period, mostly by misrepresenting blood evidence and keeping critical notes from defense attorneys.
An agency spokeswoman would not comment on changes under consideration, though Attorney General Roy Cooper has urged the SBI to consider suggestions from people outside the agency.
The SBI operates without public oversight. Its reports are not open to public inspection even after a case is adjudicated unlike other police agencies that must follow the state’s public records law.
Defense attorneys in Western North Carolina during interviews last week called for the state to close the SBI lab and set up an independent lab possibly run by a private company.