Jack Venturi

Jack Venturi, Esq. a New Jersey attorney [ [http://www.jackventurilaw.com Profile] ] was the trial attorney for Michael Behn who was accused of murder. This case is very significant because it is one of the key cases that got the Federal Bureau of Investigation to stop using Comparative Bullet Lead Analysis.

The murder took place in South River, New Jersey. Michael Behn, who had no previous criminal record, was accused of the execution-style shooting of a coin dealer in order to steal $40,000 worth of rare coins. Police found the coins at the home of Behn's mother. He told them he bought the coins from the murdered coin dealer, Robert Rose, the day he was killed. [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0605/07/cp.01.html CNN Interview] ] Behn explained that he and Rose did an under-the-table cash deal. No paperwork, no sales receipt. No proof he had bought the coins and that this was common in the coin business.

"At trial, prosecutors produced no eyewitness, no fingerprint, no murder weapon. But an FBI examiner testified that bullets found in Michael Behn's office and the bullets that had killed the coin dealer, quote, 'came from the same source of lead at the manufacturer, so they were manufactured on our about the same date'." This process is called "comparative bullet lead analysis" or CBLA and the FBI was the only lab in the country that performed it. By testing bullets for tiny amounts of impurities, FBI examiners find a bullet's chemical profile. If the crime scene bullets and the suspect's bullets turn out to have identical profiles, they claimed it was a virtual match. Thus the FBI claimed in court to be able to link one bullet to others from the same production run, even from the same box.

The report about CBLA wasn't turned over until 11 days before trial. [http://72.14.205.104/custom?q=cache:vkeudX-j72QJ:www.whistleblowers.org/0926bullet.doc Whistleblowers.org] ] Jack asked for more time to find his own expert to challenge the CBLA evidence but was denied. With almost no time, Jack and Behn's sister researched CBLA day and night. What they came up with allowed Jack to make objections at trial to preserve Behn's appeal. However, without the ability to challenge the evidence, Behng was convicted. On appeal, the New Jersey Appellate Court reversed Behn's conviction and agreed with Jack that this science was nothing but "junk science".

Not long after, the FBI agreed. Even though they have been using CBLA since the 1980s and have used it in over 2500 cases, on September 1, 2005, the FBI announced that they will stop using CBLA in all cases. [ [http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel05/bullet_lead_analysis.htm FBI Press Release] ]

This wasn't the first time Jack Venturi gained national notoriety, he was also the attorney for the defendant in the case that was used by Peter Maas to write the book (eventual TV-movie) "In a child's name". [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102109/ IMDB] ]

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