FBI: Chemist May Have Botched Evidence

April 28, 2001 -- An investigation says one Oklahoma City Police chemist may have sent several people to prison and to executions with evidence that was inconclusive and "overstated."

As a forensic chemist with the Oklahoma City Police Department, Joyce Gilchrist's evidence helped send two dozen people to death row and several thousand to prison.

A secret FBI review of her work was given to local police last week. It was leaked to the public this week. It concludes that Gilchrist may have wrongly linked defendants to crime scenes by misidentifying hair and fibers in at least six criminal cases.

The report throws into question a series of criminalconvictions, including death row cases.

Executions Questioned

The FBI looked at eight cases and found that in at least six of them Gilchrist gave testimony "beyond the acceptable limits of forensic science."

And that she "overstated the importance of hair and fiber evidence" that was used to link suspects to crimes.

"Joyce Gilchrist manufactured the evidence which railroaded me to prison," said Gene Weatherly, convicted of assault and battery in 1949.

Weatherly spent almost fifteen years in prison. Gilchrist represented the only physical evidence in his trial — fibers on his shoe that linked him to the crime scene. The FBI now says those fibers did not match.

"She robbed me of 15 years," Weatherly said.

But she may have robbed others of even more.

Gilchrist gave evidence in 23 death penalty cases — ten have already been executed and another 13 are still on death row.

Marilyn Plantz is scheduled to be executed Tuesday.

The Oklahoma Governor's office says Plantz has admitted guilt so her execution will go ahead. But if all this sounds familiar it's because there have been similar cases of fabricated or exaggerated forensics in many other states. This is one reason why last year Illinois" governor declared a moratorium on executions. Now Nebraska, Kentucky and Maryland are considering moratoriums.

'Flawed System?'

"We're basically in crisis because we have to acknowledge that the system's flawed," said Oklahoma Public Defender James Bednar.

Oklahoma's top public defender is asking the governor for $1 million to conduct an independent investigation of Gilchrist's forensic work.

"We've got to go back and take a look at those cases because if we don't it really is going to undermine everyone's confidence in the justice system," Bednar said.

Gilchrist isn't talking, but her lawyer told ABC News that "She stands behind her words. The Oklahoma City Police Department stood behind her work for twenty years. Now it has completely disowned her. She will be vindicated."

Oklahoma's governor hasn't agreed to an independent inquiry, but he says cases will be reviewed as needed.

ABCNews' Kofman Bridge contributed to this report.