As reported in a Columbus Dispatch 5-day investigative series published in January 2008, “Test of Convictions,” Ohio is in the midst of an unprecedented undertaking to re-examine certain eligible rape and murder convictions statewide. This yearlong investigation by Columbus Dispatch reporters together with the Ohio Innocence Project, a non-profit legal clinic staffed by University of Cincinnati law students and supervised by a team of attorneys, yielded 30 cases with what they considered to be legitimate claims of innocence. The Ohio Innocence Project has since filed motions to have the evidence tested, and the DNA analysis has begun. Read the rest of this entry »

On June 26, The State of Texas announced that Patrick Waller had become the 19th person in Dallas county to be to be exonerated of his crimes through the use of forensic DNA testing. Mr. Waller has served almost sixteen years in prison as a result of being wrongfully convicted of sexual assault in 1992. At the time of his arrest, Patrick Waller was 22 and already on probation for a previous drug charge. He was convicted and sentence to life in prison for allegedly being one of two men who raped a women in an abandon Dallas, Texas, building. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s well known that the trash you throw out may contain personal information that could be used to steal your identity. However, the idea that the trash you discard contains your personal DNA, which could be used as incriminating forensic evidence, is not only new, but also controversial. The Syracuse.com article, “Anything you throw away can be used against you” raises many questions about this contentious topic. Read the rest of this entry »

In recent years, many states have made changes to the laws that govern their DNA collection policies. Most states require convicted felons and some misdemeanor offenders to submit a DNA profile to the federal DNA database called CODIS. After a person’s DNA profile is uploaded to CODIS, it remains there indefinitely so it can be compared to both new and old crimes involving DNA evidence. Offender DNA profiles are continually monitored and compared to new crime scene DNA evidence to make sure that a repeat offense does not occur.

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Case backlog is a problem that plagues most state forensic crime labs. These labs, at no fault of their own, are generally under-funded and lack the necessary staff to adequately handle the constant barrage of criminal cases that require forensic analysis. Crimes such as sexual assault can take over a month to analyze and generate a cost of approximately $1,200 to complete. The state of Alabama is just such an example of how mounting backlogs can present an overwhelming challenge for a state crime lab.

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The state of Virginia’s review of forensic DNA evidence involved in old criminal cases has ceased while it requests an additional $4.5 million of federal funding. The state’s review of this evidence could help to free some inmates that may have been wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for serious criminal charges. State lab workers have reviewed 534,000 case files so far and have identified more than 2,100 criminal files that contain forensic evidence. Of these 2,100 cases with evidence to examine, 366 have been sent to an independent forensic DNA lab.

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On May 27, 2008, it was announced that Dr. Marjolein Kreik recently became the newest member of a very exclusive group of people. Thanks to a group of geneticists at Leiden University Medical Centre located in The Netherlands, Dr. Kreik is now the fifth person to have her DNA sequence determined. What makes this event even more notable is that she is the first woman— as well as the first European—to have had her DNA sequence confirmed. The first person to have their DNA sequence determined was James Watson, discoverer of the DNA double helix. His sequence was analyzed in 2001.

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Scientists at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., have recently detected the presence of human DNA in household dust. These findings, which where reported in Forensic Science International, revealed for the first time that human DNA could be detected in dust and measured. Scientist gathered 36 dust samples from eight locations around the university’s campus. Forensic DNA testing yielded human DNA from all but one sample. While the amount of DNA that was recovered was miniscule—only about ten of micrograms of total DNA per gram of dust– there was sufficient biological material needed for amplification and forensic DNA profiling. Researchers could not, however, pinpoint one person’s individual DNA profile because the results produced overlapping signals from numerous people. The team hopes that as forensic DNA analysis progresses, technology will become more advanced and will eventually solve the problem of pinpointing a particular persons DNA profile.

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A new method of human identification is being tested, and researchers involved say it may prove to be a useful tool for the military, detectives and forensic experts. This emerging methodology is based on the analysis of antibodies that are unique to each individual. Antibodies are proteins the body uses to defend itself from viruses and antigens. An “antibody bar code” can be extracted from biological fluids, such as blood, saliva, and semen, which are sample types routinely used to obtain DNA profiles.

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Most often, the public associates forensic DNA testing as being used for the sole purpose of solving a crime. We know it is quite useful in proving the guilt and innocence of a suspect, and can help identify the remains of an unknown victim. Rarely, however, do we associate DNA testing with aiding in the identification of an unknown U.S. soldier, but that is exactly what the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) uses the technology for.

This year the United States government will spend $105 million trying to locate and identify a combined total of 88,000 missing service members from the Vietnam, Korean, and World War II conflicts. Their mission to recover dead Missing In Action, or MIA, soldiers of past wars serves two main purposes. The first is to give grieving families some closure to decades of and unanswered questions, and the second is to provide a proper burial to a deceased veteran. Read the rest of this entry »