First it was Wen Ho Lee. The FBI came another cropper in the case of James Yee. Not daunted, the FBI struck again. This time its target was Brandon Mayfield. Mr. Mayfield is a lawyer living in Seattle, Washington.
http://counterpunch.org/brauchli06132004.html

The Spanish had a bag with fingerprints on it they believed belonged to one of those involved in the March 11 terrorist bombings in Madrid, which killed 291 people and injured 2,000. They sent it to the F.B.I. to see if there was a match while continuing to make their own assessment of the prints. March 20 the F.B.I. concluded it had a "100%" match with Mr. Mayfield. April 2 it informed the Spanish, furnishing them with a copy of Mr. Mayfield's prints. April 13 the Spanish politely informed the F.B.I. it was wrong. April 21 Spanish and American forensic experts met in Madrid and the Spanish tried to explain to the American experts why the prints didn't match. The F.B.I. paid no attention. Commenting on the F.B.I. 's obtuseness, a Spanish police official said: "The Spanish officers told them (F.B.I. representatives) with all the affection in the world that it wasn't him [Mayfield]. We never wanted to simply come out and say the F.B.I. made a mistake. We tried to be diplomatic, not to make them look bad, so we just said the case is still open."

Pedro Luis Melida Lledo, head of the fingerprint unit for the Spanish National Police whose team analyzed the prints explained that the F.B.I. "had a justification for everything. But I just couldn't see it." Carlos Corrales, a commissioner of the Spanish National Police's science division said: "It seemed as though they had something against him and they wanted to involve us." According to Mr. Corrales, following the April 21 meeting the F.B.I. continued to press the Spanish to concur in its findings. It was unsuccessful.

Undaunted by its flawed analysis, the F.B.I. obtained and executed a search warrant on Mr. Mayfield's home and office. It obtained lots of useful things, including "miscellaneous Spanish documents" which family members said were homework assignments for the Mayfield children. Mr. Mayfield was arrested, held for 14 days and then released when the F.B.I. realized the Spanish were right and had already arrested someone whose finger prints matched those on the bag. The F.B.I. apologized for its error.

The three men are only the tip of the iceberg.

Each man was suspected of committing heinous crimes. Mr. Lee, if found guilty of the original charges could have spent life in prison. The other two men were told they faced the death penalty but didn't since they were never convicted of anything.