FBI Abandons Controversial Bullet-Matching Technique

Yep. They've bitten the bullet at last. The FBI said Thursday that it had discontinued the use of bullet-lead matching,. a forensic technique used for at least 25 years that had been heavily criticized as inaccurate and misleading.



"It's a victory for good sense and good science over the kind of nonsense the FBI was representing in court," said William C. Thompson, a professor of law and criminology at UC Irvine.

So now that they've discontinued the use of some junk science, what, you might reasonably ask will they do about it?

Ah... Nothing.

The FBI said it would alert about 300 courts and prosecutors that since 1996 had received bullet-lead laboratory reports indicating positive results.

"These agencies may take whatever steps they deem appropriate, if any, given the facts of their particular case," said an FBI statement released Thursday.

Oh yeah--that's a strong call to review some potentially bad convictions which were based on polluted scientific testimony.