DNA testing
Without DNA testing, an innocent person may go to prison for a crime they did not commit and a bad person walk free. DNA is the main part of an individual’s genetic makeup. DNA can be determined by saliva, blood, bones, and even teeth. DNA technology helps the criminal justice system put the right person in prison in a fair matter with proof.
THESIS
Forensic DNA analysis has proven to be very essential in criminal cases. Donald Shelton stated in his “DNA evidence is now universily admitted by courts in the United States because of its realibility and the fact that, absent fraud or an error in labeling or handling, the probabilities of a false positive are miniscule” (28). Before DNA evidence was used in courts, eye witness testimony was more heavily relied upon and this brought many dangers of misidentifications. The Innocence Project shows a statistic eyewitness misidentifications were a factor in more than 70% of the initial 239 DNA exoneration cases. The U.S. congress stated that “DNA analysis can also be seen to be valid as it provides a scientific basis which allows for a physical link to be made between a criminal and a crime scene in order to secure a conviction” (503). DNA provided the truth and can prove what the criminal did in the crime scene and how he was involved in the scene. Forensic DNA analysis has been proven very reliable in cases because without DNA there has been a high percentage of eyewitness misidentifications that changed the outcome of the trial.
DNA has played a huge part in exoneration cases. The first DNA exoneration case dated back in 1986 involving a suspect named Colin Pitchfork who was acused of raping and murdering of two young girls in Leicestershire in 1983. Alan Gunn expressed “T...
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...Project has made a big difference in exonerees and has saved their lives.
DNA evidence is the biggest deciding factor for guilty verdicts in jury trials because without factual proof, the suspect cant be proven to be the bad guy. There are 2 well known syndromes the jury faces in trial: “White Coat Syndrome” and the “CSI Effect”. The “White Coat Syndrome” is described that the jurors believe “science does not lie” (Benjamin R. Newell). There is an example of this syndrome that happened in Australia. “They tend to regard it as infallible and so once it comes in, the very fact that the judge has admitted the evidence is often construed as an indication that it must be reliable, and therefore rely on it without questioning it very thoroughly” (Professor Jane-Goodman Delahunty). The prosecutor in the trial confused the jury and it worked in his favor. The “CSI Effect”
“DNA Testing and the Death Penalty.” ACLU: American Civil Liberties Union. 3 Oct. 2011. Web. 22 April 2014.
In 1989 the National Research Council Committee on DNA Technology in Forensic Science was developed due to numerous scientific and legal issues (The Evaluation of Forensic DNA Evidence). The National Research Council’s key role was to analyze statistical and population genetic issues in the use of DNA evidence and review major alternative approaches to statistical evaluation of DNA evidence (The Evaluation of Forensic DNA, 50). Over the past fifteen years DNA profiling has made tremendous advancements and continuous improvements in the fight against violent
Eyewitness misidentification cost innocent people to end up in prison. Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions in the United States, having played a role in more than 70% of original convictions later overturned by new DNA evidence(Dunn). This explains eyewitness misidentification is not a reliable solution to prison the suspect and deal with other solution. The suspect is effected because the suspect goes through terrible life for crime they did not commit and false witness hunts
Crime is a common public issue for people living in the inner city, but is not limited to only urban or highly populated cities as it can undoubtedly happen in small community and rural areas as well. In The Real CSI, the documentary exemplified many way in which experts used forensic science as evidence in trial cases to argue and to prove whether a person is innocent or guilty. In this paper, I explained the difference in fingerprinting technology depicted between television shows and in reality, how DNA technology change the way forensics evidence is used in the court proceedings, and how forensic evidence can be misused in the United States adversarial legal system.
(Kennedy & Haygood, 1992; Williams & Loftus, 1994), which is worrying considering the growing and substantial body of evidence from laboratory studies, field studies, and the criminal justice system supporting the conclusion that eyewitnesses frequently make mistakes (Cutler & Penrod, 1995; Huff, 1987; Huff, Rattner, & Sagarin, 1986; Innocence Project, 2009; Wells, Small, Penrod, Malpass, Fulero, & Brimacombe, 1998). According to a number of studies, eyewitness misidentifications are the most common cause of wrongful convictions (Huff, Rattner, & Sagarin, 1986; Wells et al., 1998; Yarmey, 2003) and, through the use of forensic DNA testing, have been found to account for more convictions of innocent individuals than all other factors combined (Innocence Project, 2009; Wells, Memon, & Penrod, 2006).
The Innocence Project, using DNA evidence, has gone back to past cases and exonerated innocent people when they were wrongly convicted. There may be many reasons that several people are wrongly convicted every year. However, there are 6 reasons deemed as the most important regarding wrongful convictions. These reasons are eyewitness misidentification, unvalidated or improper forensic science, false confessions or admissions, government misconduct, informants or snitches, and bad lawyering (understand the causes).
In the world of forensic science, exoneration holds a very crucial role. In cases where a person has been convicted of a crime and needs to be proven innocent, exoneration plays a key part. It is what helps the court to decide in a just manner whether the crime was committed by that person or not. Exoneration is based on DNA evidence and therefore, is the most authentic. The main purpose of exoneration is to help the legal system by allowing innocent people to be discharged of guilty verdicts. Majority of the legal systems are built on such structures that the people responsible for crimes can be identified and penalized. Exoneration removes the burden, charge or responsibility which is being erroneously imposed on someone by the law. On one hand where it finds out about the actual convict, it also helps the innocent.
DNA in forensic science has been around for a long time. DNA has had help in solving almost every crime committed. There have been a lot of crimes where people are raped or murdered and the person who did it runs free. Scientists can collect the littlest item they see at the scene, such as a cigarette butt or coffee cup and check it for DNA. People have spent years in jail for a crime they didn’t commit till DNA testing came into effect. People are getting out of jail after 20 years for a crime they didn’t commit, cause of the DNA testing. DNA has helped medical researchers develop vaccines for disease causing microbe. DNA has become a standard tool of forensics in many murders and rapes.
This same article examines the history of DNA evidence and acknowledges that when evidence was first introduced to the courts that the new type of identification was initially accepted without any challenges, however, critics quickly contended that DNA tests were problematic because of the reliability and the validity of probative value of the evidence. For example, DNA exoneration cases suggest that errors in forensic identification led to a high number of wrongful convictions and concerns that media coverage portrayals of forensic science evidence on popular television shows leads jurors to unfairly weigh DNA evidence while making their decision about the facts of a trial (Carrell, 2008). Moreover, in recent DNA exoneration cases the courts and jurors had difficulty analyzing the testimony of the experts on forensic identification evidence. According to the article, in 86 DNA exoneration cases, forensic science testing errors were the second leading cause of wrongful conviction, falling behind wrongful eyewitness misidentification (Carrell,
Forensic Scientists can extract semen from a rape victim and use it to help identify the criminal. The semen extracted contains traces of DNA. Deoxyribonucleic acid, also known as DNA, is “the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms” (“What is DNA?”). Similar to fingerprints, no two persons have identical DNA with the exception of identical twins. The FBI began using DNA testing in criminal investigations in 1998 (Hays). In 1994, Congress authorized the Combined DNA Index System, also known as CODIS (Hays). This is a system of DNA records from national, state, and local crime labs (Hays). It contains more than four million DNA samples from convicted offenders, and more than 160,000 samples from crime scene evidence (Hays)...
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is an acclaimed extraordinary discovery that has contributed great benefits in several fields throughout the world. DNA evidence is accounted for in the majority of cases presented in the criminal justice system. It is known as our very own unique genetic fingerprint; “a chromosome molecule which carries genetic coding unique to each person with the only exception of identical twins (that is why it is also called 'DNA fingerprinting ')” (Duhaime, n.d.). DNA is found in the nuclei of cells of nearly all living things.
Before the 1980s, courts relied on testimony and eyewitness accounts as a main source of evidence. Notoriously unreliable, these techniques have since faded away to the stunning reliability of DNA forensics. In 1984, British geneticist Alec Jeffreys of the University of Leicester discovered an interesting new marker in the human genome. Most DNA information is the same in every human, but the junk code between genes is unique to every person. Junk DNA used for investigative purposes can be found in blood, saliva, perspiration, sexual fluid, skin tissue, bone marrow, dental pulp, and hair follicles (Butler, 2011). By analyzing this junk code, Jeffreys found certain sequences of 10 to 100 base pairs repeated multiple times. These tandem repeats are also the same for all people, but the number of repetitions is highly variable. Before this discovery, a drop of blood at a crime scene could only reveal a person’s blood type, plus a few proteins unique to certain people. Now DNA forensics can expose a person’s gender, race, susceptibility to diseases, and even propensity for high aggression or drug abuse (Butler, 2011). More importantly, the certainty of DNA evidence is extremely powerful in court. Astounded at this technology’s almost perfect accuracy, the FBI changed the name of its Serology Unit to the DNA Analysis Unit in 1988 when they began accepting requests for DNA comparisons (Using DNA to Solve Crimes, 2014).
Every time an innocent person is exonerated based on DNA testing, law enforcement agencies look at what caused the wrongful convictions. There are many issues that contribute to putting guiltless lives behind bars including: eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, imperfect forensic science, and more (Gould and Leo 18). When a witness is taken into a police station to identify a suspect, it is easy for their memories to be blurred and their judgment influenced. This can lead the witness to identify a suspect who is actually innocent. Flawed forensic science practice also contributes to wrongful imprisonments. In the past, analysts have been inaccurate due to carelessness, testified in court presenting evidence that was not based on science, and participated in misconduct. False confessions have also been known to cause unlawful convictions. In some instances, police departments took part in transgression and interviewed their suspects in such an intense manner that a false confession was used cease the interrogation. To imagine that there are innocent people rotting in prison is appalling and something must be done. To prevent wrongful convictions, legislatures should form commissions and policies to reform flawed procedures.
Singer, Julie A. "The Impact Of Dna And Other Technology On The Criminal Justice System: Improvements And Complications."Albany Law Journal Of Science & Technology 17.(2007): 87. LexisNexis Academic: Law Reviews. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
the Use of DNA Evidence to Establish Innocence After Trial. National Institute of Justice, 10, 15. Retrieved from, https://www.ncjrs.gov/