Report: FBI forensic test faulty

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- The FBI says it will release all files on defendants convicted via an abandoned forensic test, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The FBI two years ago abandoned comparative bullet-lead analysis, but has yet to notify courts or convicted defendants, the Post reported following an investigation with CBS "60 Minutes."

The science, first applied after President John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963, linked bullets from a crime scene to bullets possessed by suspects on the theory that each batch of lead had a unique chemistry makeup.

The FBI abandoned the practice in 2005 after the National Academy of Sciences concluded it was unreliable, the Post reported.

The situation has taken on urgency because the typical two-to-four-year window to appeal convictions is closing on many criminal cases, the Post reported.

The FBI last week acknowledged it should have been more forthcoming is making public the cases where the bullet evidence was used.