DNA tests show hair analysis isn’t fool-proof

Microscopic hair analysis was long accepted as a virtually unerring technique to prove that a suspect was at the scene of the crime. But with the advent of DNA analysis, apparent matches of hair samples ultimately proved to be not as flawless as experts thought, leading to cases of wrongful imprisonment. The New York Times focused on the case of Kirk Odom, a man found guilty of rape in 1981 and spent two decades behind bars. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s crime lab had claimed that hairs taken from his head microscopically matched the one found on the victim’s nightgown. DNA testing later established that Odom was not the rapist, as he had asserted all along, after he had completed his prison sentence.

Read the full story on The New York Times.

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