Crime scene investigations or CSI stories on television are one thing.

Pupa Stage three.

English.

I'm not an entomologist.

the third stage of larva metamorphosis.

This guy's been dead seven days.

But for real people who are innocent, having accurate information from a crime scene can be a matter of life or death.

In 2015, the Justice Department admitted hair comparison examiners gave flawed testimony.

In 96% of cases.

But nine of the defendants had already been executed.

I went to Cal State L.A. to talk with Paula Mitchell, the Director of the Los Angeles Innocence Project, and meet forensic scientists and students, lawyers and scientists working together to identify credible cases where new evidence may overturn a wrongful conviction.

We will go back and look at the way the evidence was forensically examined to see does that still hold up?

Because sometimes it's not.

We're doing our part here, working with these wonderful students, making sure they get the experience of working on wrongful conviction cases.

We're going to be comparing different samples of fibers and looking at the properties they show in the microscope.

We have all of our colleagues here working with us to make sure we're asking the right questions on the spectrum.

We will be looking at these peaks right here.

It wasn't just DNA that we were collaborating on.

We were asking about experiments having to do with trace evidence, how evidence is collected.

You see that there.

Are different peaks at different wavelengths, and by using those different unique peaks, you can discover what your.

Drug is.

That's a really cool, positive part of this program is they threw us in pretty much within the first month.

And while the caseload of possible wrong convictions is daunting, those who do this work say the reward for freeing innocent people is worth it.

For KCET.

I'm Bonnie Boswell.

Bonnie Boswell reports is brought to you by the California Wellness Foundation.