Repository Collection 03

SBI's methods stun former FBI official

ARTICLE SOURCE ENTRY

Last Revised • July 3, 2026

This newspaper article documents growing public concern regarding the integrity and oversight of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation Crime Laboratory during the 2010 forensic reporting controversy. The article reports calls from law enforcement leadership for greater accountability and provides contemporaneous evidence that confidence in SBI laboratory practices had eroded beyond the defense community, supporting the allegations discussed throughout Statement of Facts A.


Related SMAR Citation

("State police group urges criminal probe of SBI," News and Observer, August 19, 2010)


Source Name

Legal tangle may slow SBI reforms


Author(s)

Mandy Locke & Joseph Neff


Publication(s)

The News & Observer (Raleigh)


Publication Date

August 19, 2010


Verification Source

"SBI's methods stun former FBI official," The News & Observer (Raleigh)


Source Location

News & Observer special report on SBI laboratory practices


Highlighted Pages

1, 5


Referenced in the Supplemental Motion

Page 11, Paragraph: 12


Source Status

✔ Article obtained and reviewed.

✔ Relevant passages highlighted.

✔ Publicly available source

✔ Included within the Source Verification Archive


Cited to Support

May's allegation that concerns regarding the reliability and integrity of SBI laboratory operations had become so widespread that they extended beyond defense attorneys, innocence advocates, prosecutors, and independent reviewers to include law-enforcement organizations themselves. The News & Observer article is cited to document the statement of John Midgette, Executive Director of the North Carolina Police Benevolent Association, that "no further laboratory analysis can be trusted under the current control of SBI leadership." May relies upon this statement to support his claim that confidence in the SBI Crime Laboratory had deteriorated to the point that even representatives of the law-enforcement community publicly questioned the trustworthiness of SBI forensic testing and called for greater scrutiny of SBI leadership and laboratory practices.


Supporting Documents

Original Article

Link to the original article.

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Highlighted Research Copy

Working research copy containing the highlighted passages cited in the Supplemental Motion.

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