From [HERE] The Justice Department and the FBI announced today that they will review thousands of convictions to determine whether crucial lab tests of hair and fiber evidence were flawed. It's the FBI's largest post-conviction review and will cover cases dating to at least 1985, sources told The Washington Post. The paper reported in April that officials had "known for years that flawed forensic work might have led to the convictions of potentially innocent people, but prosecutors failed to notify defendants or their attorneys even in many cases they knew were troubled."

The Innocence Project, whose independent reviews have exonerated death-row inmates and others wrongly convicted of crimes, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers will assist with the review. The Justice Department and the FBI are identifying cases for review where FBI hair examination helped convict someone, Justice Department spokeswoman Nanda Chitre said.