|
Please see our “Did You Know?” section at the end of this issue. Topic: ZyGEM –“ A New Zealand-based biotech company cuts DNA analysis times to 20 minutes” Volume 12 of The DNA Informant reviews a variety of issues involving DNA analysis. Most of the topics addressed are not new to us, but it is interesting to see how they continue to unfold. This time we will touch on the use of DNA to prove innocence and how opposing sides stand their ground – on one side addressing the importance of DNA exonerations to continue reviewing cases of convicted offenders, and on the other hand looking at it as “overhyping of wrongful convictions”. In Texas a panel was created to “study and make recommendations for a legal system trying to keep up with forensic science advances”. In Washington, crime lab directors are questioning the President's 2007 Federal Budget and the adequacy of funds to keep U.S. crime labs and medical examiner offices running effectively. New Jersey, Kansas and New Mexico are getting ready to join Virginia, Louisiana, Minnesota, Texas and California in taking DNA samples upon arrest. Other issues include the rightful compensation of those wrongfully convicted and retroactive collection of DNA samples from convicted felons; and of course a number of cases involving the use of DNA analysis. DNA exonerations are high-profile again The spate of attention started last month when Virginia's governor ordered DNA testing in the case of a man executed for the rape and murder of his sister-in-law. Although the results ultimately showed Roger Coleman was indeed guilty, some say the case paved the way for post-execution testing. After that, the issue landed in the U.S. Supreme Court. In mid-January, the justices heard arguments in a Tennessee case that deals with the question of how to handle evidence of innocence raised after the appeals process has been exhausted. People on both sides of the issue are giving the recent developments their own spin. With the Coleman case, for example, innocence advocates say his guilt isn't nearly as important as the fact that the testing was done. DNA exonerations have made people more aware of the justice system's vulnerabilities, they say, even if the results don't always match up with innocence claims. But others point to the case as an example of the overhyping of wrongful convictions. Joshua Marquis, an Oregon prosecutor who is vice president of the National District Attorneys Association, noted that the news of Coleman's guilt got much less media coverage than the announcement of the testing. Such unbalanced coverage gives the public a distorted view of the justice system, Marquis said. While legitimate innocence cases must be taken seriously, he said, the 173 people who have been exonerated so far through DNA represent only a tiny percentage of felony cases. “My concern is that an urban legend is being created in this country about a mass number of people being wrongfully incarcerated by taking a tiny number of exonerations and blowing them way out of proportion,” Marquis said. “The number that needs to be asked is, in what universe? The universe is 15 million to 20 million felony cases.” Marquis acknowledges that only a fraction of criminal cases involve DNA evidence, meaning that a very small portion of defendants could be exonerated through testing. But even if the number of exonerations is extrapolated to account for that, statistics make it clear that wrongful convictions are episodic, not epidemic, he said. Walter M. Reaves Jr., a local defense attorney who is the area's authority on innocence cases, has mixed feelings about the recent developments. Unlike some advocates, he thinks the Coleman case was damaging. “Unfortunately, it ended up being negative attention,” he said. “(Post-execution DNA testing) is one of those areas where you have to pick your battles carefully, because if you pick one like that, it can set you back.” Still, Reaves said the Coleman case brought up some important issues. For one thing, it showed how difficult it is for defendants to get DNA testing. Without an order from the governor, the Coleman testing likely would have stalled, he said. Even in states such as Texas that have post-conviction DNA statutes, procedural hurdles often bring quests for DNA testing to a premature end, Reaves said. “It's extremely difficult to meet the burden of testing that the courts have applied,” he said. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref01.html This story then leads us into the current situation in Texas. Texas should make it easier for judges to order post-conviction DNA testing, a criminal justice panel appointed by Gov. Rick Perry recommended Tuesday. Perry created the panel in March 2005 to study and make recommendations for a legal system trying to keep up with forensic science advances, developing legal issues and laws that may be needed to better protect victims and the accused. The panel concentrated in four areas: forensics, determining innocence, sex offenders and technology. "These recommendations provide a framework that will give Texans greater confidence in a justice system designed to protect all," Perry said. Some of the changes, such as making it easier for judges to order post-conviction DNA testing, require legislative action, said Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt. Many judges have been reluctant to order DNA testing without specific authority to do so, the panel reported. "Hopefully these recommendations are just the first step toward meaningful action," said Sen. Rodney Ellis, a Houston Democrat who served on the panel. Other issues involve state spending, such as boosting salaries for crime lab scientists and $2.9 million to hire 36 more. The panel also recommended the state pay for testing at private labs to avoid a backlog of cases at state labs. Other recommendations include: _Seek grant funding from the Governor's Criminal Justice Division to help innocence projects at the state's four public law schools. _Use global positioning satellite surveillance of an estimated 230 high-level registered sex offenders with child victims for at least three years, and for life in some cases, at an estimated cost of $756,000 in the first year. _Spend about $9.5 million over the next two years to expand the state attorney general's sex offender enforcement unit. The panel also recommended further study on using state money for public defenders to improve legal representation for capital murder defendants, boost compensation for the wrongly convicted and review police interrogation techniques. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref02.html Washington, D.C. – Crime lab directors are pointing out that the President's 2007 Federal Budget left out one important item: money to keep U.S. crime labs and medical examiner offices running effectively. A recent study shows the top 50 crime labs ended the year with an average 134 percent increase in forensic backlogs in processing evidence in criminal cases. While the new budget contains money to be used solely for DNA, it leaves out money to pay for much needed equipment and personnel for other backlogged sectors of a crime lab, including latent fingerprints, controlled substances, toxicology, and firearms/toolmarks testing. "Criminals are put behind bars with good detective work, and forensic testing - of which DNA is only a part," says Barry Fisher, crime lab director of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. He emphasized, "Crime labs should have a choice with how they spend federal money to improve their ability to conduct effective forensic work." Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref03.html And we continue to see states working towards the implementation of a legislation that will allow for DNA testing of all arrestees. It's not yet on the books, but New Jersey State Police technicians are gearing up for the day when DNA could be collected upon arrest for certain types of crimes. Already, five states and the federal government gather these samples, and - while not without detractors - the tactic has proved an effective law enforcement weapon in an age when DNA has the power to free a felon from death row. "I feel that the more DNA we collect, the better off we are," said New Jersey State Sen. Nicholas J. Sacco (D., Bergen), who introduced a bill last month to allow DNA testing of arrestees. "The savings in time could make a difference, because we could be taking violent offenders off the street." "It speeds up the process of crime-solving by not having to wait until conviction to get samples," said Paul Ferrara, director of Virginia's forensic science laboratory. "I would recommend it as a nice crime-fighting tool." Under Sacco's bill, New Jersey would take DNA samples from those arrested in murder, manslaughter, aggravated-assault, kidnapping and certain sex cases. More than 14,000 such arrests were made in 2004, according to state police records. The DNA profile would be removed from the database and the sample destroyed if charges were dismissed or the defendant was acquitted. Aside from Virginia, DNA samples are taken upon arrest in Louisiana, Minnesota, Texas and California, where sampling was approved in a voter referendum. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref04.html In Kansas legislation requiring everyone arrested or charged with a felony to submit DNA samples to investigators was endorsed Thursday by the House Judiciary Committee and sent to the chamber for debate. The committee also began reworking a bill to toughen penalties for sex offenders, but members decided to wait until Monday to finish their work on it. Chairman Mike O'Neal, R-Hutchinson, said the committee would "do some fine-tuning" but would retain the harsher penalties, such as life without parole for those convicted a second time of molesting a child. Backers of the DNA bill say it would help get sexual predators and violent criminals off the street, plus help close unsolved crimes. Under the bill, a person in custody must submit a DNA sample when he or she is booked and fingerprinted. The sample would be entered into the Kansas Bureau of Investigation database, which has some 60,000 identified DNA samples on file. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref05.html In New Mexico, the bill known as “Katie’s Law” — which would require DNA samples taken from adults arrested on felony charges — met no resistance on the House floor Monday, passing the chamber 65-0. The bill would expand the current law, in which DNA samples are taken from convicted felons. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref06.html We have also seen several news stories on the provision of rightful compensation for those wrongfully convicted. As states continue working on this legislative process, Virginia passes a bill for two men who wrongfully went to prison for a number of years. Richmond, Va. - Virginia's House of Delegates on Tuesday unanimously passed legislation that would provide compensation to two men who served more than 30 years in prison for sexual assaults DNA evidence proved they did not commit. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref07.html Illinois - Chicago has agreed to pay $9 million to a man who spent more than a decade in prison for rapes he did not commit. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref08.html In Ohio the law on collecting DNA samples from convicted felons is being reviewed on the basis of whether or not it can be applied retroactively. In Ohio the state legislator who sponsored a bill that requires all convicted felons to submit DNA samples said Thursday he's reviewing the law after an appeals court said it can't be applied retroactively. "We can and will if we have to, right now, go ahead and get the retroactivity in there," said Rep. Robert Latta, a Republican from Bowling Green. "This law still does exactly what it's supposed to do. We're going to find people who commit crimes and convict them. We've got to make sure we take care of it." The 9th Ohio District Court of Appeals in Akron ruled Wednesday that the law, enacted last year, could not be used to require a DNA sample from a man on probation for a 2002 conviction in driving under the influence. Craig Consilio, 42, was placed on three years' community control in 2003 after serving a six-month sentence. As he neared the end of the period, he was told he had to submit the DNA sample. When he refused, a Summit County Common Pleas judge ordered him to comply. The appeals court reversed the lower court's order, saying Consilio could not be forced to comply because the law does not include language that requires it be applied retroactively. Attorney General Jim Petro said Wednesday that the ruling could have "disastrous ramifications" for the state's DNA database. The database holds nearly 130,000 profiles of prisoners and offenders on probation; roughly 69,000 have been collected since the new law took effect. Ninety-one of the new samples have been matched to unsolved crimes, said Petro spokesman Bob Beasley. He said most of the new DNA samples collected would apply to retroactive cases but did not have a specific number. Older samples had been collected from violent criminals dating back to 1996. The 2005 law opened the collection to all felons. "The database is very important on solving old crimes and new crimes. It's also important for protecting innocence," said Mark Godsey, associate professor of law at the University of Cincinnati School of Law and faculty director of the school's Ohio Innocence Project. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref09.html Cases involving DNA evidence over the past two weeks include the following: Ohio - Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro thought he was double-checking evidence when he ordered DNA tests for a door-to-door salesman who was on death row, accused of raping and killing a 19-year-old Roselawn woman in 1982. Instead, the evidence revealed semen taken from Karen Range after her stabbing death could not have belonged to David Steffen. That revelation puts in question whether Steffen - one of the first people sentenced to death when Ohio re-instated the death penalty in 1981 - should be put to death. A federal judge in Columbus ordered more extensive testing last week. Whether Steffen raped Range or even attempted to rape her is crucial because it elevates the penalty for the crime from life in prison to death, said Assistant Ohio Public Defender Tim Payne, who represents Steffen. Steffen was convicted of aggravated burglary, rape and aggravated murder during a rape, and aggravated murder during an aggravated burglary. That carried with it two possibilities to impose the death penalty. Steffen, 46, who is being held at Ohio's maximum security prison in Youngstown, has always denied the rape, saying he thought about it but was physically unable. "He did confess to the murder, but he doesn't belong on death row," Payne said. "This new evidence establishes that David's sentencing process was infected with the invalid aggravated circumstance of rape." That makes his sentence unconstitutional, Payne said. At the very least, Steffen deserves a new sentence, Payne said. He would have been eligible for parole nearly a decade ago without that death-penalty link. More details on this case can be found at: Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref10.html California - In 1968, William Speer brutally raped and murdered 14-year-old Linda Harmon with a knife and carving fork. In 2003, a semen sample collected from the victim’s body was located. SFPD Homicide Inspector Kervin Silas, working with Matthew Gabriel of the Crime Lab, used the FBI National DNA Index and found that the sample matched the DNA of Speer, a sexually violent predator. Assistant District Attorneys Ana Gonzalez and Linda Allen prosecuted the case. Based primarily on DNA evidence, and corroborating admissions Speer made as part of a sex offender treatment program in Arizona, a jury found Speer guilty of first degree murder in November 2005. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Source: District Attorneys Office, City and County of San Francisco Maryland - OCEAN CITY – An Ocean City man identified as the suspect in a two-year-old resort rape case by DNA evidence found on cigarette butts at the crime scene pleaded guilty last week to second-degree rape and now faces as many as 20 years in jail following a pre-sentence investigation. Daine Olszewski, 34, of Ocean City, was in Worcester County Circuit Court last week facing first-degree rape charges after being arrested in September as the suspect in a rape case in the resort dating back to December 2003. OCPD detectives had several leads and interviewed a number of people during a two-year investigation that had nearly dried up until DNA evidence discovered on cigarette butts at the crime scene linked Olszewski to the incident. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref11.html Wisconsin - Police confirm that DNA now links a convicted sex offender to a recent sexual assault. Police got a positive match from Ramon Loera's DNA from a woman who says Loera assaulted her last week. Police are recommending charges of second-degree sexual assault and domestic battery. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref12.html Texas - The Arlington police have solved a six-year-old murder case with DNA evidence. The Tarrant County district attorney's office will seek a capital murder indictment against Tony Lane Gregory, 39, who is in prison for another crime, Arlington police spokeswoman Christy Gilfour said. Police allege that Gregory sexually assaulted, beat and choked his neighbor, Amy Blow, 46, in her apartment near West Arkansas Lane and South Fielder Road in July 2000. DNA embedded under Blow's fingernails was linked to Gregory, as were fingerprints found on a beer can in a laundry basket at the apartment. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref13.html Washington - Agnes Myra Williams' naked body was found in a wooded ravine in West Seattle in October 1976. Nearly 30 years later, DNA evidence found on Williams' body has been matched to Morris John Frampton, a man who has spent nearly 28 years behind bars for the 1977 murder of another woman. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref14.html Kentucky - Authorities said a man arrested in connection with an attack on two women in Warren County is the “blue-eyed rapist.” On Tuesday afternoon, police held a news conference in Kentucky. They confirm that David Hopper has been linked, through DNA, to a series of sexual assaults and rapes in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Federal, state and local agencies have matched Hopper, 42, with six different sexual assault cases dating back 14 years. Two of the cases are from the Miami Valley and include a Warren County rape earlier this month and a March 2004 rape at a Miami Township business near the Dayton Mall. Detectives said DNA linked Hopper to six of 10 unsolved sexual assault cases. However, the descriptions from the rapes earlier this month in Warren County, including the jewelry taken, were the key to his arrest. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref15.html Oklahoma - One person out of 94 trillion carries the same DNA in his or her cells as the person who killed Jewell “Juli" Busken — the same DNA that breathed new life into a cold case. Life came in 2004 when the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation notified Oklahoma City police of a match in the Combined DNA Index System. This match linked Anthony Castillo Sanchez to the 1996 homicide. Melissa Keith, DNA analyst for the Oklahoma City Police Department, was the only witness called to testify in the Busken murder trial Tuesday. After her testimony, the state rested its case. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref16.html California - San Diego police have arrested a suspect in a 15-year-old murder case using DNA evidence, Lt. Mike Hurley said yesterday. The Police Department's Cold Case Team, with help from the District Attorney's Office, tracked down Abdul Haleen Salaam, the man they say beat Lester Larson to death in 1991. Larson was 74 at the time. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref17.html Nebraska - A Madison County District Court judge has denied a request for DNA testing in the case of a man convicted in the disappearance of a Norfolk girl in 1987. David Phelps is serving a life sentence for the kidnapping of Jill Cutshall. Cutshall was never found, though a hunter near Stanton found her clothes. She later was legally declared dead. Phelps said no DNA testing had ever been done on evidence found in the wooded area where Jill's clothes were found. He said scientific proof that his DNA was not on those items would contradict the state's theory that he kidnapped her. Judge Patrick Rogers wrote in his ruling that DNA testing would not produce relevant evidence to Phelps' claim. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref18.html California - Foster City police confirmed Saturday that a man who committed suicide outside of a San Carlos gun shop last month is suspected of killing a disabled Foster City man whose body was discovered a day after the murder-suicide. Timothy Singler, 41, of Redwood City, fatally shot himself Jan. 24 outside of Imbert & Smithers, Inc., a San Carlos gun shop located at 1144 El Camino Real. Police said Singler asked to see a gun, loaded it with his own ammunition he bought at the store Monday and went outside where he shot himself. Though police identified Singler as a possible suspect in the slashing death of Brandon Hepponstal, 50, within a day of discovering the crime, officers held back on publicly reporting the link. The Daily Journal confirmed police were investigating the link Jan. 27 and reported it one day later. The official confirmation was delayed until the San Mateo County Crime Lab could test forensic evidence found at the homicide scene. Police said Saturday that a DNA test of blood found in Hepponstal’s home located at 897 Lurline Drive placed Singler at the scene. A source close to the investigation said Singler left a bloody handprint at the scene and had cut himself in the vicious attack in which Hepponstal was sliced numerous times with a knife while in his bed. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref19.html New Jersey - A murder charge has been dismissed because of unreliable DNA evidence against a man charged 35 years after the 1968 slaying of a 13-year-old girl, prosecutors announced. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref20.html Did You Know? Topic: ZyGEM - A New Zealand-based biotech company cuts DNA analysis times to 20 minutes Scientists at biotech firm ZyGEM have developed a new DNA extraction reagent based on an enzyme found in an Antarctic bacterium, which dramatically cuts the time it takes to carry out forensic DNA testing. Scientist Sir Brian Heap says DNA will be extracted from smaller samples, three times faster and at lower costs than existing methods. The new processes also reduce the risk of contamination. Sir Brian says currently about 26-per cent of crimes are being detected because of DNA testing, but with the new technology that could be raised to 40 or 50 per cent. The new process has less risk of contamination and is faster: and getting the DNA out of hair shafts can be cut down from one to two days' work to four hours. The Hamilton, New Zealand-based company’s first products may expedite the day when crime scene investigators will no longer need to send samples back to a lab to establish a victim or perpetrator’s identity. Volcanic Connection [Currently, Proteinase K is in use in crime labs and they do an overnight extraction.] The new enzyme, called EA1 proteinase, comes from a bacteria collected in 1981 from an active volcanic vent on Antarctica’s Mount Erebus. [The protease used by Zygem, can be deactivated within 15 minutes by heating and placed in the same solution as the enzymes used during the standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) - used to bulk up copies of the DNA - so the samples do not need to be opened and re-closed.] “The particular bacterium that was found happened to have an enzyme with almost perfect properties,” said Dr. Hodgson. “I think it’s safe to say that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to rediscover the particular organism again,” he added. “So we’ve taken the gene from that particular bacterium and put it into a workhorse bacterium which we then use to produce it for our commercial production.” Dr. Hodgson says the DNA analysis market is currently valued at about $1 billion, with biological reagents comprising several hundred million dollars of that total. Significant Growth However, the market is set for significant growth, particularly in the United States as President Bush recently signed the Department of Justice Reauthorization bill. The legislation permits all arrestees’ DNA to be stored in an FBI database called the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), regardless of whether they are later charged or convicted of a crime. The company, which has received initial funding from the New Zealand government and venture capital firm Endeavour Capital, has also developed products to analyze the DNA of farmyard animals and plants. These will help the industry test for resistance to diseases such as scrapie in sheep, and increase food quality and safety, as meat can be traced back to its source. In plants, the technology could also be used to provide certification of genetically modified-free status. The products are currently undergoing verification by several labs in New Zealand, the United States, and Europe, a necessary hurdle in the highly regulated field of forensic DNA. Information for the above was taken from the following sources: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref21.html http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_12_feb_06/vol12_ref22.html Editor: Karen Daurie Karen.Daurie@DNALabsInternational.com If you would like to be removed from our mailing list, please click on http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/remove_newsletter.html
|
