Community | August 12, 2010 | 3 comments

Fallible DNA evidence can mean prison or freedom - life - 11 August 2010 - New Scientist

source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727733.500-fallible-dna-evidence-can-mean-prison-or-...

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toyotabedzrock
YOU are the juror: would you trust DNA evidence? Most people regard it as near infallible- it produces the right result or no result, exonerating the innocent and securing convictions where other evidence fails.

But DNA is not as objective as you might think. In the first of a two-part investigation, New Scientist reveals that much of the DNA analysis now conducted in crime labs can suffer from worrying subjectivity and bias.
We asked forensic analysts to interpret a sample of real DNA evidence and found that they reached opposing conclusions about whether the suspect matched it or not. Our subsequent survey of labs around the world also shows that there are significant inconsistencies in the guidelines on how to interpret a sample.

The findings suggest that the difference between prison and freedom could often rest on the opinions of a single individual.
  1. groups:
    Community,   News and Politics,   Science,   US Politics,   10 more
  2. tags:
    Science,  Crime,  DNA,  DNA Testing
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3 comments // Fallible DNA evidence can mean prison or freedom - life - 11 August 2010 - New Scientist

  • EmperorThan
    • +1
      EmperorThan  

    • Yeah, a lot of cases they will say some like "there's a 1 in 100 chance this DNA could not have come from the suspect." They go off DNA markers. And since it would take (in the case of the Human Genome Project) a decade to sequence the entire genome of a person to figure out if they're innocent or guilty juries always settle for DNA markers which can be shared by a LARGE number of the population.

      But I've also heard of cases where it was something so simple as "this blood was not even the same bloodtype as the suspect." and they release them after like 20 some years behind bars.

    • 1 year ago
  • timetide
    • +1
      timetide  

    • Not to mention that several labs have proven that anybody with acess to a basic high school lab and google can learn to make DNA look vauge enough to always cast the shadow of reasonable doubt

    • 1 year ago
  • toyotabedzrock
    • +1
      toyotabedzrock  

    • I knew this was coming. And there are other problems they refuse to fully address as well. There are links but unless someone is interested I'm not gonna search my over bloated bookmark file.

    • 1 year ago
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