Thomas Thurman
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- Not to be confused with American football player Thurman Thomas.
In the late 1980s and for most of the 1990s, James Thomas Thurman was employed at the FBI forensics laboratory, which specialized in investigating explosives-related crimes. In written reports or giving evidence in court, Thurman would describe himself as an explosives forensic expert although it eventually transpired that he had no formal scientific qualifications. He left the FBI lab in 1997.
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[edit] Inspector-General's Report
In his 1997 report the I-G, Michael Bromwich, criticized Thurman for altering lab reports in such a way that rendered subsequent prosecution pointless. Following this criticism, Thurman was assigned to duties outside the FBI lab and, as a result, was not to be called in any trial as an expert witness.
[edit] Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial
Thurman had conducted test explosions in the US in 1989, when he used metal baggage containers, loaded with suitcases which were filled with clothing wrapped around bombs, to replicate the way that PA 103 was alleged to have been sabotaged on December 21, 1988. Because of the 1997 ruling, Thurman was not called to give evidence about these test explosions at the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial which took place at Camp Zeist, Netherlands from May 2000 to January 2001. Nor was his testimony sought at the trial on the timer fragment that was crucial in securing the conviction of the Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi for the crime. Thurman's non-appearance at the trial can be expected to be cited in support of any future appeal against conviction by Megrahi, since Thurman had been publicly credited with figuring out the timer fragment's evidentiary importance when he told ABC News in 1991 that he had matched the Lockerbie timer fragment with a timer that had been confiscated in West Africa from Libyan agents:
- "When that identification was made, of the timer, I knew that we had it," Thurman said.
He also publicly claimed credit for identifying the MEBO MST-13 timer, that was proven at the trial to have triggered the PA 103 bomb, when he was interviewed in the 1994 film Maltese Double Cross. Thurman said he had made the identification on June 15, 1990.
[edit] References
- The FBI Laboratory: An Investigation into Laboratory Practices and Alleged Misconduct in Explosives-Related and Other Cases (DOJ, April 1997) - Report by Inspector General Michael Bromwich
- Thurman's integrity questioned
- The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie, Producer: Allan Francovich, 1994
- Police investigations of "politically sensitive" or high profile crimes
- Criminal activities in the Lockerbie affair
