Legal groups to probe FBI bullet forensics

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- The FBI's use of discredited bullet-matching forensics will be investigated by two independent lawyers' groups, The Washington Post reported.

The announcement came after CBS News and the Post reported Sunday the agency had been using a technique of matching fired and unfired bullets up until two years ago, which was found to be scientifically flawed.

Late last week, the FBI said it would conduct an internal review of prosecutions and search for any convictions that might have been made based on bad evidence. After Sunday's report, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Innocence Network announced New York defense attorney Barry Scheck would spearhead the independent probe.

"We are going to conduct our own vetting process and try to get down to the cases where there might be injustices," Scheck told the Post.

Scheck's Innocence Project has helped free more than 200 wrongly convicted defendants since the early 1990s using DNA and other forensic evidence.