Matt Apuzzo, US Abandoning Spying Charges Against Scholar; Evidence errors seen; Inquiry did not grasp that his China links were legitimate. New York Times, Sept 12, 2015 ((sole) top-most report of front page).
Excerpt in the window of print: An acknowledgment that prosecutors misread the science at the heart of a case.
My comment:
(a) How the "evidence errors" were discovered, according to the report:
(i) When the Justice Department arrested the chairman of Temple University's physics department this spring and accused him of sharing sensitive American-made technology with China, prosecutors had what seemed like a damning piece of evidence: schematics of sophisticated laboratory equipment sent by the professor, Xi Xiaoxing, to scientists in China.
"The schematics, prosecutors said, revealed the design of a device known as a pocket heater. The equipment is used in superconductor research, and Dr Xi had signed an agreement promising to keep its design a secret.
(ii) after the arrest "Dr Xi * * * was adamant that he was innocent. But it was only when he and his lawyers reviewed the government's evidence that they understood what had happened. 'When I read it, I knew that they were mixing things up.' Dr Xi said,
"His lawyers contacted independent scientists and showed them the diagram that the Justice Department said was the pocket heater. The scientists agreed it was not.
(b) There is no need to read the rest. Only the above quotation is interesting.