Prosecutor Kym Worthy in Detroit’s Wayne County says her office has identified 147 cases of convicted and imprisoned people that will require the retesting of evidence as part of the investigation into the now-closed Detroit police crime lab, says the Detroit Free Press. Potentially thousands of cases that are at risk of unraveling because of mishandled evidence.
“This is the tip of the iceberg,” Worthy told the Free Press, noting that defense attorneys have notified her office of 30 other cases that they believe relied on mishandled evidence. Those cases, and thousands of others, are taxing the Michigan State Police’s capacity, which could translate into guilty people walking the streets, innocent people stuck behind bars,and law-enforcement agencies hamstrung in fighting crime.