Pamela Fish

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Pamela Fish is a former police crime lab analyst for the Chicago Police Department, whose work has been embroiled in controversy since 2001.

In 1986, Fish stated that there were no semen stains available in the case of the rape and murder of a medical student in Chicago. Subsequently, four men were charged and convicted of the crime. Later investigators found semen stains where Fish had found none, and in 2001, the four men were all exonerated.[1]

In the case of a 1992 rape conviction, the accused demanded DNA testing, which he claimed would exonerate him. Fish acknowledged that semen samples did exist, but contended that the amount of sample available was not adequate for conducting a test. In 2006 testing was finally conducted, and indicated that the man convicted of the rape was, in fact, not guilty.[2] Furthermore, evidence has been uncovered indicating that Fish actually gave sworn testimony which contradicted her own lab notes regarding some accused.

In the late 1990s, the Chicago Police Crime Lab was absorbed by the Illinois State Police, and Fish thus became a state employee. As a result of these and other incidents impugning her work, in 2001 Fish was moved to a new position, with the title, "administrative section chief of research and development".[3]