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Please see our “Did You Know?” section at the end of this issue. Topic: Department of Justice Releases Interactive Training Tool on Principles of Forensic DNA We are also including an interesting question to The Expert. Again the topics covered in recent news are familiar to us, yet new developments continue to arise as DNA evidence becomes more and more widely used and relied upon. In New York, a law that allows criminals to avoid prosecution after a five-year period is under review – legislators are trying to close this gap. In Ohio, a new bill is being considered that will allow prisoners to get DNA testing which could prove them innocent. The arguments continue from both sides on pro and con DNA database expansion for the inclusion of a greater range of profiles. In Kentucky officials can begin taking DNA samples from juveniles who have committed felony sex offenses or burglary. And again, there are a number of cases involving the use of DNA testing. In New York, violent criminals would be held accountable for their actions by closing a loophole that allows them to escape prosecution and punishment for their crimes after five years in a bill passed by the Senate is signed into law. The bill would also: -- require offenders adjudicated as youthful offenders to provide a DNA sample for inclusion in the State DNA Databank; Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_13_mar_06/vol13_ref01.html The Ohio Senate will likely consider a bill next week to allow prisoners to get DNA testing done that may prove them innocent. The bill passed unanimously Wednesday out of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, despite concerns — by the Ohio Public Defender Office, the Ohio Innocence Project, ACLU of Ohio, and Melinda Elkins, whose wrongly convicted husband was recently released through DNA evidence — that the bill should be stronger. Under the previous law, which expired in October, two-thirds of the 307 inmates who applied for DNA testing were denied. The new bill, which would be permanent law, includes the same strict legal standard that led to many denials. Judges must rule that the DNA test would be "outcome determinative." That means no reasonable jury could convict once it considered the DNA test results. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_13_mar_06/vol13_ref02.html As DNA databases expand, experts wonder if it is only a matter of time before all Americans will be included. At a forum sponsored by the National Academies, which advises the country on science issues, those experts debated the benefits and risks of such a database. A larger database could help solve crimes more quickly, a proponent argued, but it would also violate civil liberties, an opponent claimed. Since 2004, law enforcement has been authorized to collect DNA from anyone convicted of a felony. Previously, DNA was collected only from those convicted of violent crimes, such as rape and murder. Legislation is being considered that would expand that to collect and permanently store DNA from anyone arrested by federal officials. James G. Hodge Jr., executive director of the Center for Law and the Public's Health at Johns Hopkins University, said database expansion revolutionizes criminal investigation. "The American public is still concerned about any genetic collection," he said. "Get over it." Hodge said DNA provides no more private information than many documents, such as health records. The database would continue to be used for criminal investigations and not biological research. With a larger pool of DNA samples, law enforcement could identify criminals before they commit more crimes, he said. "This is the new fingerprint, except it's more reliable," he said. While starting such a large database would be costly, he said it would save money spent on investigations. An advantage to the system is that it would bridge the "racial divide" in the current system in which minorities are over-represented, Hodge said. The system would not be used as a "dragnet" as it often is in the United Kingdom, he said. There, law enforcement officials collect DNA from large numbers of people to rule them out as suspects. Tania Simoncelli, the American Civil Liberties Union science and technology fellow, said an all-inclusive database would create a dragnet that is "unfeasible, undesirable and unconstitutional." "It will ultimately undermine criminal justice," she said. A large database could connect innocent people to a crime scene because they had been there at some other time, she said. All states except Wisconsin retain DNA samples collected in criminal investigations. But even there, it is unclear if samples actually are destroyed, she said. Collecting DNA from all Americans would be challenged in court, Simoncelli said. Lower courts have ruled that gathering DNA constitutes a search, and law enforcement would need a warrant to collect it. People also worry their DNA will be used for other purposes, she said. State laws vary, but some say DNA may be used for "other humanitarian purposes." Aside from contradicting the Fourth Amendment, Simoncelli said creating the database would be a giant undertaking. The national database has 2.9 million offender profiles and would need to increase that to 300 million to cover all U.S. residents. Crime labs become more backlogged with every expansion, she said. Adding more people hinders forensic labs and criminal investigations. According to an article by Simoncelli, all 50 states have some type of database. Thirty-four states collect DNA from all felons, 38 for some category of misdemeanors, 28 from juvenile offenders and four from some arrestees. These databases have aided in more than 30,000 criminal cases, said Thomas F. Callaghan, program manager of the FBI's Combined DNA Index System Unit. He took no position on whether the collection rules should be changed. The FBI began its national DNA database in 1998, along with the software Combined DNA Index System, known as CODIS, that allows states to exchange DNA information. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_13_mar_06/vol13_ref04.html In Kentucky state juvenile justice officials can begin taking DNA samples from juveniles who have committed felony sex offenses or burglary, a judge ruled. Cases involving the use of DNA evidence include the following: Pennsylvania - Accused killer Jacuqin Byrd left DNA evidence in the bloody Main Line catering office where worker Sarah Boone was slain in January, police sources said. The forensic evidence, which is trickling in from the state police crime lab in Bethlehem, links him to the murder weapons, one source said yesterday. Lower Merion police discovered a hammer, a kitchen knife and a pair of scissors - all covered in blood - near Boone's body. The evidence against Byrd "shows he was in contact with the instruments found at the scene," the police source said. This evidence is not blood, police said. Instead it is characterized as "contact DNA, which can come from hair, skin or fluids." Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_13_mar_06/vol13_ref06.html Ohio - Forensic scientists said fingerprints and DNA evidence link a Marblehead, Ohio, man to the July 2004, slayings of his former girlfriend and a Fremont man. In a taped deposition played before a three-judge panel in Sandusky County Common Pleas Court, Stacy Violi of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation said she found the DNA of victim Leslie Slone, 30, on a knife believed to have been used to cut his throat, and the DNA of Claudia Fonseca, 40, on a cutting of a blood-stained T-shirt. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_13_mar_06/vol13_ref07.html Pennsylvania - After spending more than 13 years in jail, Curtis Fulton was released Thursday after DNA evidence cleared him of rape and sexual assault charges of three women in a dark playground in Germantown back in 1991. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_13_mar_06/vol13_ref08.html Florida - Fingerprint and DNA technology caught up with a Daytona Beach man who pleaded guilty to a 1988 murder and was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences in prison with no chance for parole. Speaking almost in a whisper, Romer Lebron Williams, who is already serving a 99-year sentence for violating his probation on another burglary and sexual assault conviction in Holly Hill, pleaded guilty to raping and killing Mildred Irene Oliver, 65, by suffocation. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_13_mar_06/vol13_ref09.html Virginia - Henry William Long lost his life while fighting an armed robber more than 29 years ago. But before he died, Long -- a black-belt in karate -- managed to spill some of his killer's blood as he struggled with him inside the Shakey's Pizza Parlor at 6006 W. Broad St. on Jan. 16, 1977. Remarkably, after sitting in a police property room for decades, that blood evidence recently led to a man police believe is Long's killer. The suspect, 61-year-old Benjamin Richard Johnson, was arraigned on a first-degree murder charge yesterday in Henrico County Circuit Court. He was brought here from the Sussex II state correctional facility in Waverly, where he was serving the final months of a two-year prison sentence. He was due to be released in May. The key to solving the case was Johnson's blood, which was preserved by investigators and submitted in 1996 to the Virginia Department of Forensic Science's DNA databank, which contains the DNA profiles of tens of thousands of convicted felons. Investigators didn't know whose blood they had until after Johnson was arrested on a felony gun charge in Richmond in September 2004. He was required under state law to submit a DNA sample after his conviction in December of that year. Six months later, state lab technicians matched it with Johnson's DNA. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_13_mar_06/vol13_ref10.html California - A Bakersfield woman who was raped back in 1997 by a stranger could soon see her attacker behind bars. Local forensic scientists have connected Jason Ellis with his victim and crime through the use of DNA. Ellis is now being charged with rape through the help of the Cold Hit Program, out of the Kern County Crime Lab. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_13_mar_06/vol13_ref11.html Montana - A 30-year-old Missoula murder has been solved, and police say the suspect has committed suicide. Verna Joy Kvale was beaten, sexually assaulted and stabbed to death on April 18th, 1976. Police were able to connect a suspect to the crime in January, and former funeral home director Neil Morris volunteered a D-N-A sample. Today, police announced his D-N-A matched forensic evidence found at the crime scene. Such technology was not available in 1976. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_13_mar_06/vol13_ref12.html Maryland - Almost three years after the brutal killings of two elderly women inside a flower store, Prince George's County authorities now have a suspect. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_13_mar_06/vol13_ref13.html Wisconsin - Janesville police say they have solved a two-year-old rape that ended with a Janesville woman left partially naked and bound along the Janesville bicycle trail. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_13_mar_06/vol13_ref14.html Kentucky - Mary Lou Carter was working the night shift at the old Continental Inn near Louisville's main airport when a pimply-faced teenager walked in, stuck a gun in her face and demanded money from the till. Then he forced Carter into an office and raped her. That was April 14, 1989. It would be 16 years before Carter would learn the name of the man who had her looking over her shoulder for years. James Bonds, who was 17 when the crime occurred, was sentenced a year ago to 10 years in prison for the rape and robbery after Louisville Metro Police determined that his DNA -- collected after he was convicted for several robberies years later -- matched evidence at the rape scene. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_13_mar_06/vol13_ref15.html California - Police say a La Mesa man got away with murder for nearly two decades, but with the help of DNA, his luck has run out. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_13_mar_06/vol13_ref16.html Florida - Detectives have hit another dead end in their 16-year investigation of the murder of Jupiter teen Rachel Hurley — DNA evidence recovered from a bracelet on her wrist does not match any of their top suspects. Palm Beach County sheriff's investigators had been hoping for a break in the 1990 murder case when they did new tests last year on DNA found on a bracelet the 14-year-old girl was wearing when she was raped and strangled in wooded dunes along the beach at Carlin Park. But test results showed the DNA did not match that of any suspects or anyone else in a national DNA database, another disappointment in one of the most shocking and publicized unsolved murders in Palm Beach County history. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_13_mar_06/vol13_ref17.html Did You Know? Topic: Department of Justice Releases Interactive Training Tool on Principles of Forensic DNA The National Institute of Justice released a new product created by NFSTC titled "Principles of Forensic DNA for Officers of the Court". The tool is part of President Bush's DNA initiative, Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology, and was developed in response to the President's call in his 2005 State of the Union address to improve state criminal justice systems through training for judges, prosecutors, and defense counsel to ensure they are adequately trained to handle criminal trials. "This DNA training tool will serve as a crucial primer on DNA evidence for all of those who work in the courtroom and within the criminal justice system," said Regina B. Schofield, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs. "As more crimes are solved using DNA evidence, it is important for prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, juries and other criminal justice professionals in the courtroom to understand the science behind DNA analysis when it is presented as evidence." DNA was first introduced as evidence in the United States in a state courtroom in 1987. Now, lawyers and judges regularly participate in admissibility hearings about DNA evidence. This interactive training tool will assist prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges in cases in which forensic DNA is an issue. The President's DNA initiative is a five-year, $1 billion commitment to improve the nation's capacity to use DNA evidence by eliminating casework and convicted offender backlogs; funding research and development; improving crime lab capacity; providing training for all stakeholders in the criminal justice system; and conducting testing to identify the missing. Administered by NIJ, the President's DNA initiative has awarded more than $200 million in DNA grants to communities nationwide. As part of the President's DNA initiative, Principles of Forensic DNA for Officers of the Court has 15 training modules including: -- Information on the biology of DNA; -- The history of forensic DNA analysis; -- How to understand a forensic DNA lab report; -- Factors in post conviction DNA testing requests; -- Information about forensic DNA databases; -- Issues involved in presenting DNA evidence in the courtroom; -- Information on the admissibility issues regarding the use of DNA evidence; and -- An extensive glossary with basic definitions relating to forensic DNA analysis. Newer DNA analysis techniques can yield results from biological evidence invisible to the naked eye, even in cases where the evidence is contaminated. Today, police departments throughout America are re-examining unsolved rape and homicide cases using advanced DNA methods. Newly processed DNA profiles are uploaded into the FBI database, the Combined DNA Index System, so the data can be compared with DNA profiles derived from convicted offenders and evidence samples already in the national system. Principles of Forensic DNA for Officers of the Court and more information about the President's DNA initiative can be found at www.dna.gov. NIJ made the training tool available for the first time at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Scientists in Seattle, Wash. Source: http://releases.usnewswire.com/redir.asp?ReleaseID=61322&Link=http://www.usnewswire.com/> Update on ZyGEM In Vol. 12 of the DNA Informant, we covered ZyGEM’s discovery of a new reagent that would speed up DNA extraction methods. ZyGEM is now launching the product to major reagent users – and DNA testing equipment, robotics makers and research institutions – in the United States, Europe and the UK. Several major DNA extraction companies in the United States, European Union and New Zealand, have now signed to use the new reagent and process in evaluation trials. Source: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0602/S00035.htm Ask The Expert Question: I currently represent a young man charged with deliberate homicide. My client admits trying to stab the victim with a knife, but it was a melee and lots of people were using knives. We just received the DNA testing back and the victims DNA is not present. The State is arguing that either the victims DNA did not transfer or that it is masked by my client's DNA, as his DNA was on the knife due to a cut he received. What is the best argument to make that if my client's knife penetrated the victim’s body there would be DNA? Are you aware of any literature that might help my position? Answer: An interesting question, yet there are some issues to consider. 1. Did the lab test both the blade and the handle for DNA? Since the victims blood should be on the blade portion. Some labs only take 1 sample for DNA. I would want to know where the sample was taken from. 2. The prosecutor is right. When blood is mixed we will detect both individuals only when the mixture about less than 1:10. Over that amount you see only the major profile. 3. The best test assuming both individuals are male is to perform Y-STR testing. You can overload a Y-kit and you should see both individual profiles. See NIST web site for DNA information on Y-STR. 4. I have seen someone stabbed without leaving blood on the blade. A quick stab in the stomach area might not leave any blood as it gets wiped off with the stomach fat/skin when the blade is withdrawn. However, you would expect to see blood on the blade with multiple stabs. This is basic information and of course every case is different and there are exceptions to the rule in crimes. As far as literature I do not know of any that deals with no blood left on a knife. To answer our question in the subject heading-a qualified Yes. The Expert 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
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