Virginia Cops Used Fake DNA Docs to Coerce Confessions. Somehow, That’s Legal

The criminal justice system is supposed to be able to prevent the worst kinds of wrongful convictions with the help of DNA forensics. Good intentions are meaningless when bad cops fight dirty.

The Virginia Beach Police Department allegedly showed suspects forged documents with fake DNA evidence in order to get them to confess to a crime in order to get a conviction, according to state Attorney General Mark Herring.

Police used the forged DNA documents at least five times. The fake lab certificates seem to have been legit. The documents were adorned with an official seal and letterhead from the agency and in two of them had a fake employee's signature on them. In at least one case, DNA documents were used as evidence. It is unclear if the documents were legitimate.

The practice was discovered in the spring of 2021 after an assistant commonwealth's attorney requested a copy of a forged document. The requested document never existed in the first place, so that request came up empty.

This was a potentially unconstitutional tactic that used the name of the Commonwealth to try to get confessions. It abused the good name and reputation of the Commonwealth's hard-working forensic scientists and professionals who work hard to provide accurate, solid evidence in support of our law enforcement agencies.

The Office of Civil Rights launched an investigation into the forgeries. The police department has entered into a two-year agreement with the attorney general that will stop the practice from being repeated in the future and adds more modest reforms. None of the officers who were involved in the deceptive practice will be punished for their actions. We pause here for a collective sigh.

There are no plans to overturn the convictions of people who were questioned using fake documents.

This wasn't technically illegal. The Washington Post explains that police are allowed to lie in order to get a confession if their tactics don't lead to an "involuntary" confession. In 1997, an appeals court upheld a murder conviction in Virginia after police coerced a confession by showing a man fake fingerprints that they said he was involved in the crime. Talk about justice.

Chris Leibig told the Post that faking DNA records were just a factor to be considered in whether a confession was voluntary. unconstitutional does not equal repulsive.