Peter Stout’s buoyant presence cuts a sharp contrast to his grisly work as head of the Houston Forensic Science Center. Defying the typical laboratory white, Stout is dressed in hues of blue with bright teal armadillo socks peeking out of brown Oxfords.
His independent crime lab, dubbed the country’s worst in local and national news reports in the 2000s, separated long ago from its roots within the Houston Police Department. Under Stout’s leadership, it has transformed from a failed forensic lab with a leaky roof, staffed with under-qualified employees who lied about their credentials, and caused wrongful convictions into one of America’s most independent and respected public crime labs.
The lab’s daily churn includes analyzing evidence from some of the city’s worst crimes: murders, shootings, rapes. Stout doesn’t forget that each item can be vital. “When these events happen, they fundamentally change people,” Stout said. “What goes on in these labs is that little piece of objective information that means the difference of whether a family gets to start healing or not.”
