Joyce Gilchrist - Aftermath

Aftermath

Other cases from individuals convicted on Gilchrist's testimony continue to work their way through the courts.

• Michael Blair was sentenced to die for the murder of a young girl in 1993. The evidence leading to his conviction included shafts of hair found near the girl's body and in Blair's car. New DNA evidence showed that the hair matched neither the girl, nor Blair.
• During the early 1990s, Oklahoma state law did not allow defense attorneys to use government funds to hire other forensic scientists to verify Gilchrist's claims. However, during appeals of Malcolm Rent Johnson's death penalty case, two forensic experts hired by the defense were critical of Gilchrist's testimony, particularly as it relied upon several "blue-colored hairs" that seemed too "ubiquitous" to be useful evidence.
• Curtis McCarty was released in 2007 after spending nearly 20 years on death row. The courts found that Gilchrist acted to either alter or intentionally lose evidence. In 2009 McCarty's lawsuit reached a settlement in which Gilchrist was responsible for a payment of over $16 million, an amount that she is attempting to force Oklahoma City to pay.

Over 1,700 cases in which Gilchrist's evidence was significant to a conviction were reviewed by the state of Oklahoma. Gilchrist’s attorney stated that, "The criticism of around here is second only to that of Timothy McVeigh." After her dismissal, Gilchrist filed a lawsuit seeking $20.1 million, claiming that her firing was actually motivated by revenge, after she reported sexual misconduct by her supervisor.