As part of its five-part series on forensic science and wrongful convictions, the Chicago Tribune examined how scientific developments in fire investigations have called into question crucial expert testimony in many cases, including some death penalty prosecutions. As a result of untested theories, shoddy analysis and a resistance to rigorous review, long-time arson investigators are now seeing their conclusions contradicted by colleagues who question the reliability of the folk wisdom that has dictated this profession for decades. What was once accepted as truth is now being exposed as inaccurate findings through research and laboratory tests, and some experts believe that thousands of fires may have been misinterpreted as arson over the last 50 years because of reliance on myths. For example, Ernest Willis was freed this month after spending nearly two decades on death row in Texas for alledgedly setting a 1986 fire that experts now say could not have been an arson. “God knows how many innocent people have been convicted. You’ve got tons of holdouts — good old boys who’ve investigated 5,000 fires and they are doing it the same way they’ve always done it,” said Gerald Hurst, a fire investigator whose expert testimony helped to exonerate Willis and several other wrongly convicted persons. Long-time fire investigator John DeHaan, who has been a fire and explosives consultant in California for more than 30 years, echoed Hurst’s observation and noted, “Most of the fire investigation in the mid-1980’s was taught by word of mouth by people who had been doing if for 20 years. There wasn’t a lot of science in fire investigation. It was oral tradition.” DeHaan also stated that among arson investigators there is a negative reaction to incorporating science into their methodology, and that many of these professionals still provide expert testimony based on outdated methodology. (Chicago Tribune, October 17, 2004). Read the DPIC Summary of the Series. Read the complete Chicago Tribune series. See DPIC’s Studies page.