North Carolina's attorney general on Friday ordered an independent review of the state's crime lab following revelations about practices that led to a groundbreaking exoneration of a man wrongly accused of murder.
Attorney General Roy Cooper told the Associated Press that two former assistant directors of the Federal Bureau of Investigation will review the practices of the lab, managed by the State Bureau of Investigation. The review of cases dating to the 1990s will begin in about a week, he said.
The lab's practices were a critical issue in the case of Greg Taylor, who served more than 16 years behind bars for the murder of a prostitute in Raleigh before he was exonerated last month.
Also Friday, Taylor filed a request for a pardon with Gov. Beverly Perdue. He's eligible for $750,000 in compensation if she grants a pardon based on innocence. Perdue did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The outside review will run concurrently with an internal review that Cooper ordered last week. Cooper said he will make the results public.
