Photograph of Donald E. Gates by Wade Payne/Washington Post
Last week I posted an entry about Donald E. Gates and how he served 28 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Gates was convicted on the basis of false testimony by FBI agent Michael P. Malone that matched a hair found on the victim’s body with a hair sample taken from Gates. According to the prosecution, Malone’s testimony was critical to Gates’ conviction.
The Washington Post reported today that U.S. Department of Justice officials were notified three different times about potential problems with Malone’s testimony in the Gates and other cases. The first notification was in 1997.  And yet Justice officials never contacted Gates or his attorney.
The Office of Professional Responsibility at the Justice Department is now investigating. The Justice Department is also reviewing 100 other cases since the mid-1970s for potentially falsified and inaccurate tests by FBI analysts.
The Post reported earlier that Gates harbors no ill-feelings toward the Assistant U.S. Attorney who initially prosecuted him and who secured his conviction. Â I wonder how he feels about the as yet unnamed Justice Department officials whose failure to fulfill basic ethical obligations could have prolonged his incarceration by as much as eleven years.
