http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/2009/09/19/0919scentid.htmlTEXAS
Group calls scent ID evidence 'junk'
Innocence Project says it will release report detailing cases in which innocent people were arrested after scent ID lineups.
By Jeff Carlton
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Deborah Cannon
2007 AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Fort Bend County sheriff's Deputy Keith Pikett has spent 20 years training dogs, including James Bond, left, and Clue, to sniff out possible criminals. A legal group derides his work as 'dog whispering.'
DALLAS — The Innocence Project of Texas said Friday that scent identification lineups, in which trained dogs determine whether a suspect's smell matches the smell of crime scene evidence, are based on faulty science and have led to a number of wrongful convictions.
The group, which tries to free the wrongly convicted, said it would release a report next week detailing at least five cases in which innocent people were arrested after scent ID lineups conducted by a Fort Bend sheriff's deputy who trains dogs. Two of the five were jailed for capital murder before the charges against them were dropped.
Deputy Keith Pikett has spent about 20 years training dogs named Clue, James Bond and Columbo to sniff out possible criminals in more than 2,000 scent identification lineups. But the lineups have come under attack from some in the legal community, and Pikett is being sued by two people who say they were wrongly implicated in crimes because of Pikett's scent lineups. Charges in both cases were eventually dropped.
The Innocence Project said what Pikett does amounts to "dog whispering."
"This is exactly the kind of down-home voodoo that jurors like because, hey, everybody likes a dog," said Jeff Blackburn, chief counsel for the group's Texas branch. "Why don't they just have a guy who says he has a unicorn that can figure out who criminals are?"
Texas and Florida are the only states that regularly use scent identifications, Blackburn said. The Innocence Project of Florida is reviewing about 20 cases involving a now dead dog handler who worked on three cases that later resulted in exonerations. Florida has since begun to restrict the use of scent lineups.
During a scent lineup, an officer wipes individual pieces of gauze or cloth on a suspect and several other people, and then places them in separate coffee cans, according to the lawsuits against Pikett. A trained dog is presented a piece of crime scene evidence, and is then led by Pikett to each can for a whiff. The dog is supposed to signal Pikett if it sniffs a match.
Proponents of scent lineups argue that each person has a unique smell, and that dogs are capable of distinguishing among the subtlest of differences.
But critics say the method lacks the scientific validity of other court-approved identification methods, including DNA and fingerprint testing.
"This should not be in court," said Rex Easley, the attorney who filed both lawsuits. "It is junk, absolute junk. It's unreliable. There is no methodology and no science."
Pikett's attorney, Randall Morse, said his client denies any wrongdoing. He described him as a well-respected law enforcement official who has consulted for the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Texas attorney general's office and several Texas police and sheriff's departments.
Pikett has testified as an expert witness in more than 40 cases, Morse said. In at least three cases, defense attorneys lost appeals arguing that Pikett's testimony should be inadmissible.
Pikett spent about nine years as a dog expert-for-hire while working as a high school science teacher before joining the sheriff's department full-time about 11 years ago, Morse said.
"There is a whole criminal defense bar who would tell you he is not reliable. One reason is that he does a good job of putting people away," said Morse, an assistant Fort Bend County attorney.
