WASHINGTON – The Justice Department and the FBI will review thousands of criminal convictions from over a decade ago for possibly flawed analysis of hair sample evidence.

The department and the FBI are in the process of identifying historical cases for review where a microscopic hair examination conducted by the FBI was among the evidence in a case that resulted in a conviction, Justice Department spokeswoman Nanda Chitre said.

"We remain committed to working closely with our law enforcement partners to go through thousands of cases, all of which are more than a decade old, and to assemble evidence for purposes of conducting a thorough and meaningful review of convictions," Chitre added.