"Texas commission reviewing complaints about handling of forensic evidence in criminal cases should work in public," is the title of the editorial from the Saturday edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
John Bradley, new head of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, says he wants the panel to work with integrity so that its investigations carry credibility.
But then he talks about not keeping an open door on the process.
That’s a mixed message — and seems to misunderstand what the Legislature intended when it created the commission in 2005.
After flawed crime lab work in Houston called criminal convictions into question, the Texas Legislature established the commission to look into complaints about negligence or professional misconduct in handling forensic evidence such as ballistics, DNA analysis, toxicology and other tests on crime scene evidence.
The commission, housed at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, operated largely without fanfare until Gov. Rick Perry in September replaced the chairman and other members. Perry acted right before a scheduled hearing on a dispute about the arson determination that led to the capital conviction and 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham.
There was debate about the scope of the commission’s authority before Perry appointed Bradley, Williamson County district attorney, as the new head. Because of the fairly general wording of the statute creating the panel, that tug of war’s likely to continue.
But members of the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee made clear at a meeting Tuesday that they expect the commission to operate in the open as it grades the homework of public agencies.
In testimony at the hearing and in a statement on the commission Web site ( www.fsc.state.tx.us), Bradley suggested that he might try to keep some of the work secret until final reports are released.
But Criminal Justice Committee Chairman Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, quickly nixed that notion.
"We intended for the process, the commission’s work to be very transparent," he said. (Watch at http:// tinyurl.com/forensichearing.)
A key goal is to "put pressure on agencies to do it right" and to let labs, police departments and other offices know that "there is an agency that’s going to hold them accountable," Whitmire said.
Earlier coverage of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee hearing is here; coverage of the Willingham case begins with the preceding post.
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