Well, the report is out, and “isn’t pretty” is rather accurate. I only caught parts of the noon news brief, but here’s the quick and dirty:

Over 1,000 cases reviewed.
20% of serology tests had problems. Serology is an older technology that was replaced by DNA testing.
40% of DNA tests had problems. Three are death penalty cases.
There was some mention of the Ballistics lab but I didn’t catch if it was positive or negative.

Now, “problems” doesn’t mean the test was wrong, but it does mean it very well could be. The odds are that at least one of those cases has an error that brings the evidence into question. We are not being served well by a bureacracy that impeaches the very system of justice we depend on in this country. This isn’t a CSI drama, it’s a comedy of errors. I’m a big fan of the death penalty, but not if the evidence used to convict cannot be depended on. And I have to say, if I were on a DP case right now, I’d not support that for a penalty.

Update: Chronicle article here.

In unrelated news, the Danger Train scores again. This time it got a bicyclist. No word on whether it was due to an illegal left turn or not.

Update: According to this report, it wasn’t a bicyclist (there goes KHOU again, getting it wrong….) It was a blind man. Laurence has details on the METRO plan to prevent such accidents in the future.