FBI Stops Bullet Lead Tests

September 7, 2005 -- The FBI will no longer test bullets by attempting to match lead content because neither scientists nor bullet manufacturers are able to definitively attest to the significance of a match. One New Jersey defendant has already been granted a new trial because of questions about the test. The bureau has performed about 2,500 bullet lead examinations for local, state, federal, and foreign law enforcement agencies.

Bullet lead examinations were usually performed when a firearm was not recovered or a fired bullet from a crime scene was too small or damaged to identify the unique striations created by each firearm. These lead compositional analyses determined trace amounts of elements in the crime scene bullets and compared them to amounts found in bullets in a suspect's possession.

A National Research Council report, Forensic Analysis: Weighing Bullet Lead Evidence, recommended that the FBI tighten the quality controls on its bullet lead analysis process, and revise the statistical methods it uses to compare the lead in crime scene bullets with the lead in bullets linked to a suspect.

• Forensic Analysis: Weighing Bullet Lead Evidence (2004)
• Press release

• FBI
• FBI Press Release on Bullet Lead Analysis