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Man convicted in 1985
rape challenges flawed
hair analysis
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By DENISE LAVOIE Sep. 11, 2015 4:20 PM EDT
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FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) — George Perrot has spent
almost 29 years in prison since being convicted of raping
an elderly woman based in part on a single strand of hair.
Now he's hoping a recent acknowledgement by the FBI
on the limits of microscopic hair analysis will prompt a
judge to grant him a new trial.
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The hair in question was found in the Springfield home of
a 78-year-old woman in 1985. At Perrot's trial, an FBI
agent testified in no uncertain terms that the hair was a
match for Perrot's.
But last year, the U.S. Department of Justice flagged
Perrot's case as one of hundreds that involved erroneous
statements from FBI agents about hair analysis. The FBI
now acknowledges that the science is not conclusive
and uses it only in conjunction with DNA testing.
Perrot, who was 17 at the time of his arrest, has always
denied raping the woman. Over the years, his conviction
was overturned twice based on grounds unrelated to the
hair, but both times a higher court reinstated it. DNA
evidence was not used in trials until the late 1980s, and
the hair has since been lost.
On Friday, Judge Robert Kane began hearing evidence in
what is expected to be a multiday hearing on Perrot's
motion for a new trial.
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Microscopic hair analysis had been used at trials for
decades, but a 2009 report from the National Academy
of Sciences described testimony identifying a particular
defendant through hair analysis as "highly unreliable."
In 2012, the Justice Department began a review of
criminal cases after a string of exonerations in cases in
which microscopic hair analysis was used. In April, the
government said that of the 268 trials reviewed so far,
investigators found erroneous statements from FBI
experts in nearly all of the cases.
The Innocence Project, a Boston law firm and The
Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at
Brandeis University have been working to clear Perrot.
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Prosecutors contend that an FBI expert's testimony
about hair analysis at Perrot's trial wasn't as distorted as
Perrot's lawyers say it was. They also believe there was
enough evidence to convict Perrot even without the hair
evidence.
Perrot's 76-year-old mother, Beverly Garrant, listened in
court Friday as her son's lawyers tried to demonstrate
the unreliability of microscopic hair analysis. She said
she strongly believes her son is innocent and has more
hope than she's ever had that he could be freed.
"I'd like to see my son have another chance to relive his
life," she said. "I just have hope."
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