According to a recent report from ABC 7 News, internal audits of the Illinois State Police crime lab's toxicology section reveal fundamental problems with the section's testing methodology.

Wheaton criminal defense attorney Donald J. Ramsell discovered an internal audit dated July 13, 2011 while defending a DUI case. Ramsell said the audit revealed that crime lab scientists were not using proper validations to ensure the accuracy of their test results. In particular, the data used for testing blood samples was inaccurate, he said.

According to the 2011 audit, control charts, which are statistical tools used to monitor the predictability of the testing process, were inaccurate, Ramsell said. This could have prevented crime lab technicians from knowing that the testing process was not working, he said. For their part, state police representatives told ABC 7 News that validation studies "are [not] necessary for ISP to show its method is valid. The ISP uses a valid method in blood alcohol testing which is widely accepted in the scientific community." Find out more in the November Illinois Bar Journal.