N.C. forensic unit under scrutiny

RALEIGH, N.C., Sept. 9 (UPI) -- The blood-stain analysis group at the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation had no policy manual for more than two decades, a newspaper says.

The Raleigh News & Observer said the policy guidelines it received last week from the state Department of Justice appear to have been written last year after a highly publicized case in which a dentist was acquitted of killing his wife. The foreman of the jury that found Dr. Kirk Turner not guilty said the blood-stain work in the case was so poor it was "fraud."

Blood stains were crucial because Turner said his wife stabbed him in the leg with a 7-foot spear, and he killed her in self-defense. Prosecutors said Turner killed his wife and then faked an attack by stabbing himself in the leg.

SBI Agent Duane Deaver, who worked on the Turner case, has been suspended.

Marilyn Miller, who teaches forensic science at Virginia Commonwealth University, said cases in which SBI agents testified are being scrutinized. She said the blood-stain analysis unit's failure to have a policy manual is "astounding."

"If you are a reputable unit, you have written procedures for everything you do," she said.