More Tyler: World renowned lab makes mistakes under political pressure

[bobke]

This could be the Tyler Hamilton Story:
In the New York Times:

1. a world renowned lab
2. using technology methods acknowledged and in use for years
3. falls prey to political influence
4. in order to capture bad guys and solve big cases
5. and make big names for the enforcement agency and scientists involved
6. the lab scientists and technicians come under pressure to produce results and then get sloppy and make mistakes
7. leading to incorrect or FALSE POSITIVE LAB RESULTS
8. perhaps leading to letting murderers free and
CONVICTING INNOCENT PEOPLE due to an over-reliance on
science as infallible
9. all revealed when the lab and its methods WERE REVIEWED BY OUTSIDE SCIENTISTS and found faulty.
10. huge scandal, bad science corrupted by politics and ambition.

all revealed in the NY Times yesterday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/07/national/07dna.html?

The outside auditors, from the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors, found that the Virginia lab's internal review process was flawed. They also raised concerns that lab workers had felt pressured by their superiors as well as the office of Jim Gilmore, who was governor when a flawed test of newly discovered DNA was conducted in 2000, to produce quick and conclusive reports in the Washington case, even when the evidence was muddled.

"Pressures from outside the laboratory and excessive managerial influence from within the laboratory," the report said, "had a detrimental effect on the analyst's decisions, examinations and reports in this case."

Sound familiar?
a page right out of the Tyler Hamilton case.


FORZA TYLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

c'mon folks. The science standard for forensic DNA has got to be a hundred times tighter than that used in sports doping and the DNA tests have been around as long as the flow cytometry for blood typing. And these guys messed it up. Bigtime.

GO TYLER!

 

[wilmar13]

They want me to sign up to read it... how about screw the copyright laws and paste the story?

 

[MJtje]

How about we stop with always getting tyler on the topics......he's guilty period. He is doing cycling no good for constantly fighting his case. His credibility is sinking and so of cycling in general.

They want me to sign up to read it... how about screw the copyright laws and paste the story?

 

[bobke]

From NYTIMES
By JAMES DAO

WASHINGTON, May 6 - A sharply critical independent audit found Friday that Virginia's nationally recognized central crime laboratory had botched DNA tests in a leading capital murder case. The findings prompted Gov. Mark Warner to order a review of the lab's handling of testing in 150 other cases as well.

Among the auditors' eight recommendations, all of which were accepted by Mr. Warner, were that the governor restrict the work of the lab's chief DNA scientist, Jeffrey Ban; review 40 cases that Mr. Ban has handled in recent years, along with a sample totaling 110 additional cases; and develop procedures to insulate the lab from any outside political pressures.

Experts said the findings could lead to a re-examination of scores of past prosecutions, including those involving some of the nearly two dozen inmates on Virginia's death row, and might also throw into turmoil many current prosecutions in which the lab's work helped identify or rule out suspects.

"You have to have doubts about the reliability of any case coming out of there," said Betty Layne DesPortes, a criminal defense lawyer from Richmond who heads a legal panel for the American Academy of Forensic Science. "How can we be sure that this case wasn't typical?" she said of the handling of evidence in the prosecution of Earl Washington Jr.

The governor called for the independent audit of the lab last fall in response to the case of Mr. Washington, a retarded man who came within days of execution for a rape and killing before DNA evidence, though not resolving the case, did raise doubts about his guilt.

The audit's findings come at a time when DNA is growing in importance in implicating and exonerating suspects. Forensic labs in several states, including Oklahoma and Texas, have come under intense scrutiny for their mishandling of that and other evidence.

The outside auditors, from the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors, found that the Virginia lab's internal review process was flawed. They also raised concerns that lab workers had felt pressured by their superiors as well as the office of Jim Gilmore, who was governor when a flawed test of newly discovered DNA was conducted in 2000, to produce quick and conclusive reports in the Washington case, even when the evidence was muddled.

"Pressures from outside the laboratory and excessive managerial influence from within the laboratory," the report said, "had a detrimental effect on the analyst's decisions, examinations and reports in this case."

In an interview, Mr. Gilmore, a death penalty supporter now in private law practice, said that while he had "demanded all the proper evidence we could get," he had never asked the lab to reach any particular conclusion.

Virginia has executed more people, 94, than any other state except Texas since the Supreme Court allowed reinstatement of the death penalty 29 years ago. Mr. Washington was initially sentenced to death for the 1982 rape and fatal stabbing of Rebecca Williams, a 19-year-old mother from Culpepper, Va., but the sentence was commuted by Gov. Douglas Wilder in 1994. He was then pardoned by Mr. Gilmore in 2000 because of DNA evidence that raised doubts about his guilt.

But because of mistakes in the DNA tests by the crime lab in 1993, his lawyers assert, he stayed on death row seven years longer than necessary. And additional botched testing in 2000, they say, is the reason he has never been fully exonerated.

"This laboratory touts itself as the best state lab in the country, yet it generated these wrong test results in a capital case twice," said Peter Neufeld, a lawyer for Mr. Washington who is co-director of the Innocence Project. "This case raises very serious questions about the legitimacy of the capital justice system."

Mr. Washington, 45, is living in a home for the mentally retarded on Virginia's Eastern Shore. When he was told Friday afternoon about the audit's findings, he said he hoped he would now be officially declared innocent in the Williams murder, Mr. Neufeld said.

Mr. Ban, a nationally recognized forensic scientist who has helped other states develop DNA policies, trained many members of the Virginia lab's staff. As a result, the auditors recommended that independent experts review tests by other analysts there involving low levels of DNA - the type of evidence used in the Williams case - to ensure that similar problems were not rampant at the lab.


The audit found an array of problems in the way Mr. Ban had conducted and analyzed DNA tests in the Williams case. Those mistakes caused him to conclude incorrectly that a convicted serial rapist named Kenneth Tinsley was not the source of semen found in Ms. Williams, even though he had been found to be the source of DNA on a blanket at the crime scene.

But a test commissioned by Mr. Washington's lawyers in 2004 pointed to Mr. Tinsley as the likely sole source of the DNA found in Ms. Williams. Had the state lab come to the same conclusion, Mr. Washington's lawyers claim, Mr. Tinsley would have been prosecuted for the Williams murder years ago. He never has been, though Mr. Neufeld said he was now imprisoned in an unrelated rape case.

The Virginia legislature enacted a law this year that makes the Division of Forensic Science, which runs the central crime lab, an independent state agency and creates an advisory board, made up in part by division employees, to help oversee its work. But Mr. Neufeld said the legislation did not go far enough because it did not create an entirely independent office to review the lab's work.

"The audit provides compelling evidence that crime labs can't police themselves," Mr. Neufeld said.

Paul B. Ferrara, the director of the Division of Forensic Science, who in the past refused to acknowledge any errors in the Washington case, declined to be interviewed. But in a statement, he said the audit "belies the major body of other work" by Mr. Ban that helped lead to Mr. Washington's pardon.

Ms. DesPortes, of the forensic science academy, criticized Mr. Ferrara for what she described as his failure to shield Mr. Ban from "typical" political pressure on crime labs. She said his response to the audit suggested that he would not vigorously carry out its recommendations.

"He seems to think a perfect lab is one where errors never occur," she said. "But errors are going to occur. A perfect system is one that is able to catch its mistakes, and correct them."

 

[bobke]

How about we stop with always getting tyler on the topics......he's guilty period. He is doing cycling no good for constantly fighting his case. His credibility is sinking and so of cycling in general.

If you are not interested in Tyler's unfair treatment by a bunch of people on a witchhunt, all you have to do is not read these posts, how about.

For those of us who believe he is innocent, a very close parallel of lab errors and political pressure in the realm of hardcore forensic science speaks volumes about how people can believe science is infallible. Like the pope, there is no such thing.

 

[wilmar13]

How about we stop with always getting tyler on the topics......he's guilty period. He is doing cycling no good for constantly fighting his case. His credibility is sinking and so of cycling in general.

I personally don't have enough information to form an opinion on his guilt or innocence (translation: I don't care enough to sort through the whole case)... but even if you think he is guilty, this highlights something very important when it comes to proving someone innocent or guilty. If you dismiss this as irrelevant you are no better than the people that think he is innocent because he cried when his dog died and he is a nice guy.

BTW thanks for posting the article.

 

[Dead Star]

some people just don't know how to give up...

 

[limerickman]

If you are not interested in Tyler's unfair treatment by a bunch of people on a witchhunt, all you have to do is not read these posts, how about.

For those of us who believe he is innocent, a very close parallel of lab errors and political pressure in the realm of hardcore forensic science speaks volumes about how people can believe science is infallible. Like the pope, there is no such thing.

Were you one of the people who donated money to his defence fund ?

I am all for people getting a fair trial and due process but it seems to me to be clear that TH was subject to due process and was found guilty.

I also have to say that his defence and the mystery twin, or whatever it was called, smacked of utter desperation on TH's part.

For the record, I always felt that TH was a very magnanimous type of guy and very polite.
I hope that he will move on with his life and find peace.

 

[Catabolic_Jones]

For the record, I always felt that TH was a very magnanimous type of guy and very polite.
I hope that he will move on with his life and find peace.

Ditto.

I wonder, though, with people who possess the unlikely composite of high moral fibre and a tendency to lie, that they must believe those lies. I don't exonerate him; I'm just trying to explain his irrational behaviour.

Tyler, suck it up, admit it, and if you want, make a return to cycling. I think he could still do something in the domestic race circuit in the States to promote the sport, and salvage some honour.

 

[limerickman]

Ditto.

I wonder, though, with people who possess the unlikely composite of high moral fibre and a tendency to lie, that they must believe those lies. I don't exonerate him; I'm just trying to explain his irrational behaviour.

Tyler, suck it up, admit it, and if you want, make a return to cycling. I think he could still do something in the domestic race circuit in the States to promote the sport, and salvage some honour.

I agree.
I think that if he did admit his guilt and did do as you suggest that it would be
great.

You wouldn't have seen it but Eurosport did a piece on the Giro last night as an introduction.
They reviewed the season so far with behind the scenes stuff with CSC, Fassa, Davitomon.
I nearly puked when I saw Johan Museeuw in the Davitomon team meeting telling the riders how to race the Tour of Flanders (or maybe it was Roubaix).
He has refused to acknowledge his guilt.
Shows how far in to denial, the sport is.

 

[MJtje]

Hmmz I knew that this would be somewhat of a controversial topic, but heej thought I could say my opinion too Serious, he dotched a bullit....he got caught so he is guilty....maybe I'm to black white person...were fire is there is smoke. And on RBR there was a dude who got a 'credible source' that said tyler would leave on stage 13 of the tour le france.........and he did. That is also weird.......his team allready knew by then that Tyler wouldn't pass the test this source said to that guy on RBR.......interesting.

If you are not interested in Tyler's unfair treatment by a bunch of people on a witchhunt, all you have to do is not read these posts, how about.

For those of us who believe he is innocent, a very close parallel of lab errors and political pressure in the realm of hardcore forensic science speaks volumes about how people can believe science is infallible. Like the pope, there is no such thing.

 

[tfstrum]

They probably test for drugs in bicycling way more than a person in trouble would get tested for DNA. Didn't Tyler get caught multiple times? Sorry, I don't follow that closely. They probably use different labs in different countries, etc. It would be hard to keep so many people to secrecy. Lack of secrecy in one facility is probably how the DNA scandal broke.

 

[Flyer]

Tyler Hamilton can appeal until the cows (or bovine plasma/HBOCs) come home. I understand he wants both his salary & endorsements renewed---and these are the tools and PR tactics of the trade.


It will NOT change the facts of his dopey doping associations:

1) Alex Zulle was his teammate
2) Oscar Camenzind was his teammate
3) Santiago Perez was his teammate
4) Luigi Cecchini is his doctor
5) Lance Armstrong was his teammate
6) Actovegin & Insulin were publicly confirmed by Mark Gorski, Mgr. as part of the USPO team medical kit in the 2000 TDF. Tyler & Lance's team.
7) Tyler finished 2nd in the 2002 Giro with a cracked collarbone and grounded molars.
8) Tyler finished 4th in the 2003 TDF, again with a broken collarbone.

Tyler associates with dope (insulin & Actovegin) experienced dopers, doper doctors and completes Grand Tours with painful injuries demanding heavy doping.

His 2004 Vuelta blood test debate will never make him a 'clean rider'. Tugboat or no Tugboat.

At least David Millar admitted to EPO use--reluctantly, but w/o the ongoing clinical denials.

If Tyler were concerned about keeping up 'appearances' he should have stayed under Lance's PR machine---and under the radar. Not a leader at CSC, not a leader at Phonak.

It's very late in the game for sympathy.

 

[MJtje]

Spot on Flyer

Tyler Hamilton can appeal until the cows (or bovine plasma/HBOCs) come home. I understand he wants both his salary & endorsements renewed---and these are the tools and PR tactics of the trade.


It will NOT change the facts of his dopey doping associations:

1) Alex Zulle was his teammate
2) Oscar Camenzind was his teammate
3) Santiago Perez was his teammate
4) Luigi Cecchini is his doctor
5) Lance Armstrong was his teammate
6) Actovegin & Insulin were publicly confirmed by Mark Gorski, Mgr. as part of the USPO team medical kit in the 2000 TDF. Tyler & Lance's team.
7) Tyler finished 2nd in the 2002 Giro with a cracked collarbone and grounded molars.
8) Tyler finished 4th in the 2003 TDF, again with a broken collarbone.

Tyler associates with dope (insulin & Actovegin) experienced dopers, doper doctors and completes Grand Tours with painful injuries demanding heavy doping.

His 2004 Vuelta blood test debate will never make him a 'clean rider'. Tugboat or no Tugboat.

At least David Millar admitted to EPO use--reluctantly, but w/o the ongoing clinical denials.

If Tyler were concerned about keeping up 'appearances' he should have stayed under Lance's PR machine---and under the radar. Not a leader at CSC, not a leader at Phonak.

It's very late in the game for sympathy.

 

[Dead Star]

yep, certainly is.

 

[meehs]

If you are not interested in Tyler's unfair treatment by a bunch of people on a witchhunt, all you have to do is not read these posts, how about.

For those of us who believe he is innocent, a very close parallel of lab errors and political pressure in the realm of hardcore forensic science speaks volumes about how people can believe science is infallible. Like the pope, there is no such thing.

Yeah, sure. Three samples, three tests, three positives. All false. Uh huh.

 

[Dead Star]

If you are not interested in Tyler's unfair treatment by a bunch of people on a witchhunt, all you have to do is not read these posts, how about.
.

this is exactly what Virenque fans used to say

 

[VeloFlash]

This could be the Tyler Hamilton Story:
In the New York Times:<snip>
........
Sound familiar?
a page right out of the Tyler Hamilton case.


FORZA TYLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

c'mon folks. The science standard for forensic DNA has got to be a hundred times tighter than that used in sports doping and the DNA tests have been around as long as the flow cytometry for blood typing. And these guys messed it up. Bigtime.

GO TYLER!

Where is the parallel?

During the hearing TH made a virtual admission that he had a mixed population of blood cells from either/and (take your pick arbitration panel) being the world's 101st human chimeric and/or being the result of a "vanishing twin".

Having failed to prove to the panel either of the above (note the dissenting panel member made no comment), the alternate defence was the test and procedures were flawed to find he had a mixed population of blood cells which his other defences admitted to the existence of such an infraction.

Hombredesubaru, the perfect conspiracy cannot be proved. For persons like you this is a conspiracy that will always exist.

Were you aware the panel members who found TH had breached the rules were Canadian and the dissenting member was American? Why don't you run with that?

 

[bobke]

Where is the parallel?

During the hearing TH made a virtual admission that he had a mixed population of blood cells from either/and (take your pick arbitration panel) being the world's 101st human chimeric and/or being the result of a "vanishing twin".

Having failed to prove to the panel either of the above (note the dissenting panel member made no comment), the alternate defence was the test and procedures were flawed to find he had a mixed population of blood cells which his other defences admitted to the existence of such an infraction.

Hombredesubaru, the perfect conspiracy cannot be proved. For persons like you this is a conspiracy that will always exist.

Were you aware the panel members who found TH had breached the rules were Canadian and the dissenting member was American? Why don't you run with that?[/QUOT


Tyler never admitted he had a population of two different RBCs in his blood. But he did not challenge the results of the test.
If you cannot understand the difference, this thread will go nowhere.

The results of the test were not challenged because it goes nowhere legally and probably is not the issue. The issue is that Tyler had funny results on several occasions over many months. Why? That is the question. The answer might be something besides transfusion.

It is a FACT the results of the test:
1. even if there are two "humps" as seen visually on the test result graph, it may not indicate two cell populations 100% of the time--definition of false positive
2. a visual scan of the test is how the test is read-this is not quantitative and inherently subjective--"looks positive to ME" you would have to train people so that each reader could reliably give results consistently with himself and with everyone else reading these tests
3. the test at Olympics was first read as negative,then later positive--demonstrating its subjectivity
4. the people who later read the test as positive knew it was Tyler, a bias
5. the people who "corrected" the reading to positive developed the test and had a conflict of interest in reading the results
6. the people who developed the test never did the research on people with no history of transfusion to determine what the false positive rate might be

The whole thing stinks

peace

 

[Flyer]

On the contrary Tyler's suspension smells very SWEET. A 'Red Letter Day' for doping compliance.

Hamiliton and his whole Phony Phonak Dream Team stunk up cycling more than did Team Cofidis and their embarrassing doping disclosures from earlier in 2004.

You doping apologists are complete frauds. You have no credibility whatsoever. When your fairytales are exposed for what they truly are---you just appeal the results, suggest a conspiracy theory, scream out 'jealous liar' or other ad hominem personal attacks to those with some clarity on the issue. Usually you do all of the above in a feeble attempt to change the subject. But the doping truth leeches out despite your mindless cover up rants.

You scream out "innocent until proven guilty' when you really mean; My hero is a saint and is 100% exempt from jealous suspicion or scruntiny.

Hamilton choose to move out from under Lance Armstrong and become a leader. He went to Bjarne Riis, Mr 60% and his CSC squad. Then he jumped again to Phonak for a 'custom built team' of dopers, past and present. (Zulle, Camenzind, Perez)

Tyler's only crime was; He got caught, along with Camenzind and Perez.

Tyler's athetic career is now finished---pending another miracle. He will probably start racing Masters along with Jonathan Boyer and seek his revenge by putting the hurt on us umedicated part-timers.

Tyler needs to move away from the spotlight and we need to change this dirty sport of ours, from unrealistic and inhumane to practical and healthy.

Your boy went down. He was not the first and he won't be the last. Get used to it until we can get the schedule and race format fixed.

Where is the parallel?




During the hearing TH made a virtual admission that he had a mixed population of blood cells from either/and (take your pick arbitration panel) being the world's 101st human chimeric and/or being the result of a "vanishing twin".

Having failed to prove to the panel either of the above (note the dissenting panel member made no comment), the alternate defence was the test and procedures were flawed to find he had a mixed population of blood cells which his other defences admitted to the existence of such an infraction.

Hombredesubaru, the perfect conspiracy cannot be proved. For persons like you this is a conspiracy that will always exist.

Were you aware the panel members who found TH had breached the rules were Canadian and the dissenting member was American? Why don't you run with that?[/QUOT


Tyler never admitted he had a population of two different RBCs in his blood. But he did not challenge the results of the test.
If you cannot understand the difference, this thread will go nowhere.

The results of the test were not challenged because it goes nowhere legally and probably is not the issue. The issue is that Tyler had funny results on several occasions over many months. Why? That is the question. The answer might be something besides transfusion.

It is a FACT the results of the test:
1. even if there are two "humps" as seen visually on the test result graph, it may not indicate two cell populations 100% of the time--definition of false positive
2. a visual scan of the test is how the test is read-this is not quantitative and inherently subjective--"looks positive to ME" you would have to train people so that each reader could reliably give results consistently with himself and with everyone else reading these tests
3. the test at Olympics was first read as negative,then later positive--demonstrating its subjectivity
4. the people who later read the test as positive knew it was Tyler, a bias
5. the people who "corrected" the reading to positive developed the test and had a conflict of interest in reading the results
6. the people who developed the test never did the research on people with no history of transfusion to determine what the false positive rate might be

The whole thing stinks

peace