State must act on DNA scandal
As Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said in June when she released the terms of reference for the Commission of Inquiry into Forensic DNA Testing in Queensland: “The people of this state must have confidence in the reliability of results from the lab.” In view of the grave deficiencies uncovered by the inquiry, Ms Palaszczuk should waste no time in releasing the final report by commissioner Walter Sofronoff KC. It is due next week.
In his interim report in September, Mr Sofronoff found that scientists had made “untrue” statements to courts, prosecutors and victims of crime since early 2018. If samples fell below Queensland’s unusually high testing threshold, they were reported by the lab as having “insufficient DNA” or “no DNA detected” to police and in the formal evidence statements scientists gave in court. Mr Sofronoff found it was possible to extract “a full or partial profile” below the threshold, meaning statements routinely produced by the lab were untrue.
Queensland Health later revealed that 1260 court cases had been affected by the incorrect statements, casting doubt over convictions and acquittals. Mr Sofronoff’s inquiry, sparked by The Australian podcast Shandee’s Story, has heard evidence that senior police signed off on an unprecedented DNA testing threshold in early 2018, which meant crucial evidence went undetected for years. Hundreds of ignored samples from rape and murder cases now are being tested as a result.
Victims of crime and the public have been let down badly. For that reason we welcome the decision to introduce a plain-language DNA guide in the state as recommended by Queensland Court of Appeal former president Margaret McMurdo, who led a 16-month review into sexual and domestic violence. The guide will be written for judges, defence lawyers and police to better understand DNA science. “If investigators, lawyers and judicial officers do not have the skills to understand forensic evidence, they are unable to question and critically analyse results, question witnesses or provide correct explanations to a jury,” her report found. Beyond that initiative, the sooner the government releases Mr Sofronoff’s report and implements its recommendations, the sooner confidence in DNA testing in the criminal justice system should be restored.