How Did Fred Zain Be Responsible For Wrongful Murders?

Imagine being responsible for guilty convictions of innocents. The feeling of remorse would hopefully prevent someone from convicting more than one person. But some might never have that feeling. They might just have a feeling, or hope, of not being caught. Fred Zain surly hoped that he wouldn’t get caught. A forensic scientist is bound by ethics in whatever they do. As a true example of unethical conduct, Fred Zain was responsible for over 100 wrongful convictions (Principles and Practices). His unethical behavior went unnoticed for over 15 years as a forensic serologist. After years of falsifying DNA results and testimonies, Zain’s misconduct finally came to the surface after the State v. Woodall case. Fred Zain’s career even started with falsifying information. According to “Ethics in Science”, Zain was employed to the West Virginia State Police crime lab based on a
Woodall’s conviction of rape was overturned by a new DNA test which acquitted him (Principles and Practice). This acquittal is what brought the spotlight down on to Fred Zain since his testimony differed from the new results. The new results found that the hair evidence was actually from Woodall’s beard rather than pubic hair that Zain stated before. Zain had “reportedly never bothered to compare it with a hair sample from the man who owned the car” (Principles and Practice). An independent expert later determined that “Woodall could not possibly have committed the crimes because DNA evidence cleared him” (Ethics in forensic Science). Due to the uncoherent results and Woodall’s continuous plead of innocence, Woodall sued the State of West Virginia for false imprisonment which hauled Fred Zain in for criminal accusations (Scientific Fraud). This started an investigation on all of Zain’s work throughout his career which was ordered by the West Virginia Supreme