Pubdate: Mon, 26 Nov 2001
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Copyright: 2001 Cox Interactive Media.
Contact:  http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/28
Author: Rhonda Cook

CRIME LAB UPGRADE UNCLOGS 'BOTTLENECK'

Fast Forensics By Gbi Speed Court Calendar

Just three years ago, Clayton County prosecutor Bob Keller was looking at 
having to drop drug charges because a backlog at the state's forensic lab 
had caused an unacceptable delay. It was costing county taxpayers too much 
to hold accused drug offenders in jail to await trial.

Not any more.

The wait is much shorter than in 1998, when prosecutors would wait 
sometimes more than a year to learn how much alcohol was in a suspected 
drunken driver's blood, what drugs were found in the system of a person who 
had died, or whether a bullet found at one particular scene was from a gun 
used in a seemingly unrelated crime.

"It's like night and day, the difference," Keller said about improvements 
at the lab that are close to complete. "It's been great."

The changes came after a series of media reports in 1998 that focused on a 
crime lab that prosecutors and judges believed was on the verge of 
collapsing from the load and had become the "bottleneck of justice," said 
Gib Heuett, director of strategic planning for the GBI and its crime lab at 
the time.

A panel of experts and those who use the services of the lab --- police, 
prosecutors, judges --- recommended that Georgia spend $50 million to 
expand, upgrade and staff the lab.

"At the high water mark, we were 36,000 cases behind," said Terry Mills, 
the GBI deputy director who oversees the Forensic Science Division.

"We've got just about everything we needed," Director Milton Nix said.

Regional Labs Coming

Construction on a new annex to the lab and a new morgue at the GBI's 
headquarters in Decatur are expected to be finished next spring. The agency 
is building regional labs in Cleveland in North Georgia and replacement 
facilities in Columbus, Savannah, Augusta and Macon.

And by the end of next year, all the GBI's facilities statewide will have 
been updated, and the current equipment will last about five years more.

"But then we'll have a lot of equipment that will get old at the same time, 
and that's $5 million to $10 million worth of equipment," Mills said.

All the state's medical examiners at the labs are now board-certified 
pathologists, and all cases now are subject to peer review before the 
findings are released. The lab is accredited by the International Standards 
Organization in Switzerland.

There are currently 11,741 cases pending at the lab, but, Mills said, "We 
get 10,000 cases a month in, so we're always going to be in that area 
because the volume is so big."

Of the cases sent to the lab this year, work on 88 percent was completed 
within 30 days.

"Three years ago, it was 40 percent" of cases completed within 30 days, 
Mills said. "So that's a tremendous improvement."

Mills said 10,000 of those 11,700 pending cases were for DNA analysis of 
samples taken from state prisoners to be put in an offender database that 
is used to cross-reference evidence collected at the scenes of unsolved 
crimes. The lab expects to have all those prison cases completed by the 
first of the year.

Budget Cuts Expected

But problems still remain in the areas of analyzing evidence such as hairs 
or strands of fibers found at a crime scene, as in the evidence used to 
convict Wayne Williams in two cases of "missing and murdered" young blacks 
in Atlanta 20 years ago. The lab has about 160 cases backed up, which 
equals a year of work.

There also are backups in the lab in analysis of fingerprints, documents 
and firearms.

Yet, the lab, with a current budget of more than $20.4 million, will cut 
some services because the state's revenues are falling.

To save $1.6 million, the GBI is offering to eliminate 18 unfilled slots 
for scientists and technicians in the toxicology and firearms areas. "The 
state can't spend more money than the state has," Nix said. "I hope the 
cuts don't have much impact on us. We've made so much progress."

Keller, the Clayton County district attorney who has seen such a difference 
in lab operations, also hopes the impact of budget cuts will be minimal. 
"What we hope is the austerity programs . . . do not allow us to regress," 
he said.

But Mills said some services will be reduced.

"We'll eliminate things that are the lowest priority," Mills said. "I 
cannot get behind again, because if you are behind, you are not efficient. 
We will cut services that are not requested as much or don't give as much 
information."

For example, the lab will dump plans to do DNA testing in incest cases and 
nonviolent cases. The GBI will stop sending scientists to the scene of a 
"clandestine lab" where drugs are manufactured. There will be no more 
firearms analysis in suicide cases. The lab also will no longer be able to 
tell law enforcement officers the quantity of drugs found in the system of 
someone accused of driving under the influence and will test only for 
cocaine and marijuana in blood samples.

"We don't have the manpower to do the other," Mills said. "If you don't 
have the staff to do it, you can only do so much. Whether you have the 
evidence or we refuse the evidence, it doesn't get done."
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MAP posted-by: Beth