The N.C. State Bureau of Investigation’s crime lab is under the microscope yet again after more cases of mishandled blood evidence were discovered.

On a day when the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys released its year-long review of 147 cases, it also was announced that SBI officials notified prosecutors about 75 new cases which would require review.

The initial review began after an analysis of the SBI’s crime lab found some 200 cases in which officials improperly reported results from blood testing. N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper asked for the review following an innocence hearing for Greg Taylor. During the hearing, an SBI agent testified that agents were told to record in lab reports that evidence gave chemical indications for the presence of blood when the first test for blood came back positive, even when a follow-up test was negative.

Taylor, who was wrongly imprisoned for nearly 17 years for a murder conviction, has since been exonerated and released.

Prosecutors contend each of the 147 convictions reviewed was proper because of other independent evidence including confessions, eyewitnesses and ballistics.

“There was additional overwhelming evidence in every one of them,” said Peg Dorer, executive director of the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys.

Defense attorneys are not convinced, questioning the fact that the review was conducted by prosecutors. Diane Savage, a lawyer who focuses on crime-lab issues, said prosecutors can’t know how a jury would respond if it learned about improperly handled evidence.

“To me, it seems like a complete whitewash,” Savage said.

While we applaud prosecutors for their thorough and diligent evaluation of the cases, the jury is still out on whether it resolves the issue of unreliable evidence being presented as fact in court. Evidence used to convict the innocent could also acquit the guilty, and the citizens of the Old North State need to have confidence in the evidence presented in the judicial system.

The reviews conducted by the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys should include independent mediators to remove any question of impropriety and assure the public that juries are hearing the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

With the help of an independent review, the people of North Carolina can have restored faith that people accused of crimes receive fair trials.