13 wrongful convictions all tied to one forensic analyst. The analyst – Mary Jane Burton – was hailed as a hero for saving the DNA evidence that led to the exonerations. But when reporter Tessa Kramer starts investigating, she meets a former lab trainee with a very different – and much darker – story to tell. Over the course of 12 episodes, Kramer unravels this mystery, searching for proof of explosive allegations against Burton and a possible cover-up at one of the nation’s leading crime labs. An original podcast from VPM and Story Mechanics, future seasons of Admissible will investigate the role of evidence in our legal system.
Content advisory: this episode makes mention of the sexual assault and murder of a child. Please take care if listening.
In this special update episode of Admissible, Tessa Kramer returns to the mic to explore the aftermath of our 12-part series. Our investigation exposed the Virginia state crime lab’s mishandling of a whistleblower's allegations against Mary Jane Burton, the lab’s long-time Chief Serologist. Since our initial reporting, the Virginia Department of Forensic Science and its Scientific Advisory Committee have taken steps to confront the fallout.
This episode highlights the case of Marvin Grimm, who spent 45 years in prison. The egregious nature of Burton’s flawed evidence in this case not only clears Grimm's name, but also underscores the urgent need for the lab to take more drastic action in responding to our concerns about Mary Jane Burton.
Audio of Mary Jane Burton testimony is from the Jens Soering trial. For more about that trial, we recommend the 2023 documentary "Till Murder Do Us Part: Soering vs. Haysom or the podcast, Small Town Big Crime Podcast - https://www.smalltownbigcrimepodcast.com/
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Produced and edited by: Tessa Kramer and Ellen Horne
Mixed and scored by: Charles Michelet
Special thanks to: Megan Pauly, Ben Paviour, Meg Lindholm, Gavin Wright, Chloe Wynne, Dana Bialek, Danielle Elliot, Kim Nederveen Pieterse, and Steve Humble.
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Listen now on (https://admissible.vpm.org) or your favorite podcast platform.
25 Apr 2023
Ch. 12 - Something of this Magnitude?
As we come to the end of season one, reporter Tessa Kramer is left with some lingering questions. How are the injustices we've seen in this story woven into the DNA of our criminal legal system? Is there hope for genuine reform? And what role can forensics play?
More information on Maneka Sinha of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law: https://www.law.umaryland.edu/faculty--research/directory/profile/index.php?id=1212
Radically Reimagining Forensic Evidence by Maneka Sinha: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3891788
18 Apr 2023
A Note from Tessa on Evan Gershkovich
The final episode of our first season is coming soon, but first: a message from Tessa on the arrest of her friend, Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who is wrongfully detained in Russia. For more information, visit www.freegershkovich.com.
11 Apr 2023
Ch. 11 - Repress It, Suppress It
The case of Earl Washington left a permanent stain on Virginia’s state crime lab. What does this case, and its aftermath, reveal about the lab's record of reviewing misconduct within its own four walls?
More information on the case of Earl Washington Jr.: https://innocenceproject.org/cases/earl-washington/
4 Apr 2023
Ch. 10 - The Ultimate Form of Gaslighting
As we approach the end of our reporting, Tessa revisits Gina Demas, the whistleblower, to see where the events of our story have left her, and to give her an update on our investigation. Will she get any vindication?
More information on Dana Gold and the Government Accountability Project: https://whistleblower.org/
https://whistleblower.org/our-team/dana-gold/
28 Mar 2023
Ch. 9 – The Burden
Three women attacked on one fateful night in Norfolk, Virginia. All three identify the same man. Decades after his conviction, DNA analysis proves his innocence, leaving the women with more questions than answers. The people falsely convicted are not the only ones whose lives are turned upside down when the system gets it wrong.
21 Mar 2023
Ch. 8 - Lights and Sirens
In the midst of our reporting, another man is exonerated based on Mary Jane Burton’s clippings – Winston Scott. But one thing isn’t clear: why was Scott convicted in the first place? Reporter Tessa Kramer takes the original serology reports to an expert. Did Burton have a hand in Scott’s conviction?
More information on the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, including former MAIP attorneys Frances Walters and Parisa Dehghani-Tafti: https://exonerate.org/
More information on the case of Winston Scott: https://exonerate.org/all-project-list/winston-scott/
More information on serologist Marilyn Miller of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU): https://news.vcu.edu/article/marilyn_miller_crime_scene_guru_and_founding_forensic_science
14 Mar 2023
Ch. 7 - Too Little Too Late
The discovery of Mary Jane Burton’s clippings sparks a review of thousands of case files. This massive effort to find wrongly convicted people is unprecedented. Yet the slow effort by the lab raises questions. Were they afraid of what they’d find?
More information on Virginia’s Post-Conviction DNA Testing and Notification Project: http://vscc.virginia.gov/2020/Virginia%20Post-Conviction%20DNA.pdf
More information on the case of Bennett Barbour:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2012/03/bennett-barbour-exonerated-of-rape-in-virginia-how-the-state-is-botching-the-dna-retesting-and-notification-of-old-cases.html
7 Mar 2023
Ch. 6 - "Bad Documentation"
Whistleblower Gina Demas wasn’t the only one with concerns about Mary Jane Burton. Tessa Kramer sits down with two former lab employees whose careers soared following Gina’s fight with the lab. What do they remember about Mary Jane’s work? And what kept them from speaking up?
28 Feb 2023
Ch. 5 - Politics and Science
Falsifying results, skipping tests, and ignoring scientific protocols -- why weren’t these concerns addressed by the Virginia state crime lab? Whistleblower Gina Demas finds herself caught in a clash between science and office politics.
21 Feb 2023
Ch. 4 - The Show and Tell Girl
Who was this storied serologist, Mary Jane Burton? While her work is preserved in case files, bench notes, and court transcripts, little is known about her interior life. As we gather more detail about her life, uncovering mysteries and tragedies that complicate the narrative surrounding her work, a clearer picture emerges.
14 Feb 2023
Ch. 3 - Pandora's Box
Reporter Tessa Kramer gets her hands on a box that’s been gathering dust for 40 years – a time capsule from the crime lab’s pre-DNA era. To decipher the evidence, we’ll seek the help of an outside expert and put the whistleblower’s credibility to the test. What will we find in the box? And will it reveal an unsettling truth?
More information on serologist Marilyn Miller of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU): https://news.vcu.edu/article/marilyn_miller_crime_scene_guru_and_founding_forensic_science
7 Feb 2023
Ch. 2 - Oil and Water
Forensic scientist Mary Jane Burton cracks some of Virginia’s toughest and most gruesome cases – what’s her secret? When a young trainee brings fresh eyes to Mary Jane’s work, the answer to this question is not what she expected. But can we trust her story?
7 Feb 2023
Ch. 1 - The Holy Cow Moment
DNA was a revolution for crime solving and for one mother, it could be the key to proving her son’s innocence. Her journey leads to a miraculous discovery at the Virginia Department of Forensic Science. What follows is an astounding series of events surrounding the work of one trailblazing forensic analyst, Mary Jane Burton.
More information on Marvin Anderson’s case:
https://innocenceproject.org/cases/marvin-anderson/
31 Jan 2023
Introducing: Admissible: Shreds of Evidence
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