The Legal Aid Society praised a New York State Supreme Court ruling concerning the unreliability of the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s (OCME) in-house DNA software – Forensic Statistical Tool (FST), and called for courts, prosecutors, and OCME to review all cases where this program was used, reports WNYC/Gothamist. FST was used by the OCME between April of 2011 and January 1, 2017.  OCME discontinued FST in 2017, but some older cases where FST was used are still pending in the trial courts.

“All thirteen hundred of the cases where FST was involved should be reviewed at least to tell if FST was a deciding factor,” said Allison Lewis, Staff Attorney with The Legal Aid Society’s DNA Unit. “Any client who had FST in their case and is now sitting in jail, or is now with a conviction on their record, is entitled to review the role FST played.”