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Please see our “Did You Know?” section toward the end of this issue. After clearing JonBenet Ramsey’s parents, “touch DNA”, which provides a suspect’s genetic profiles through invisible skin cells, has gained national attention. For further information on touch DNA, also go to our “Did You Know” section.
“In Texas U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee called for federal government assistance for DNA testing of death row inmates as a way to ensure the right person is facing execution. “
In England millions of profiles on the national DNA database have been handed over secretly to private companies without the consent of those involved. The Liberal Democrats say that this practice must be suspended immediately. Yet a spokesman for the National Policing Improvement Agency, which oversees the database, said: “These are completely anonymous profiles which are not identifiable in any way. After approval, they were made available for authorized research purposes demonstrating, clear, potential operational benefit to the police in terms of detecting and solving crime.”
In addition to these stories you will find brief summaries of new and ongoing cases involving the use of DNA analysis. Every story is followed by a link to its original source, which you can follow for more details.
In The NewsTesting gains national attention after use in clearing JonBenet Ramsey's parents
The technology was used to clear the parents of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, who was killed in her Colorado home 11 years ago. Earlier this year, it helped free Tim Masters, who was imprisoned in Colorado for more than nine years in a 1987 slaying.
Touch DNA analysis provides the suspect's genetic calling card through testing of such items as clothing or weapons for invisible skin cells sloughed off on contact.
But it's rare that touch DNA leads to major case developments because getting a genetic profile depends on the number of skin cells left behind, said Renee Romero, head of the Washoe County Crime Laboratory.
Source: www.rgj.com
Congresswoman Wants DNA Testing Of Inmates
In Texas U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee called for federal government assistance for DNA testing of death row inmates as a way to ensure the right person is facing execution. "We have a broken criminal justice system, not only in Harris County, but we have it in the nation. I have made this my personal cause," said Jackson Lee. Currently, there are 369 people on Texas' death row. Under the plan, not everyone would be eligible for DNA testing -- only those inmates who have proof of their possible innocence.
Source: www.click2houston.com
England - Millions of profiles from DNA database passed to private firmsMillions of profiles on the national DNA database have been handed over secretly to private companies without the consent of those involved, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
Papers obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that on five occasions since 2004 private firms with police contracts have successfully applied to use the database to help them develop computer programs.
The DNA database contains records of 4.2 million people, of which a million have never been convicted of an offence. Records are rarely deleted, even if a person is not charged.
Ministers say the database is a crucial tool in solving crimes. But when it was set up, there was no suggestion that profiles would be made available to private businesses for commercial purposes.
The companies involved were not given the identities of the people whose DNA profiles they analysed and used them for research that could be useful to the police. But critics said it was unacceptable that profiles had been handed over secretly without any public debate or the consent of those concerned.
A spokesman for the National Policing Improvement Agency, which oversees the database, said: “These are completely anonymous profiles which are not identifiable in any way. After approval, they were made available for authorized research purposes demonstrating, clear, potential operational benefit to the police in terms of detecting and solving crime.”
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk New and Ongoing Stories Involving the Use of DNA EvidenceCalifornia - DNA evidence has helped Alameda County authorities make an arrest in a rape case dating back to 1996. A spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff's Department says James Fitzgerald Johnston has been booked on six counts of rape and other charges for the assault in March of 1996 on a 22-year-old woman at her home in Hayward. Source: http://cbs2com
New England - A DNA test may have implicated Jeffrey Glazebrook in the 1977 murder of a 97-year-old Ashland woman, but it remains to be seen if it will convict him.
Connecticut - More than four years after a Fairfield woman was raped and nearly strangled in her home, a Fairfield man goes on trial today for the 2003 crime.
Police investigators, using a new kind of DNA test and assisted by an FBI profiler, filed the charges on which Anas Hourani, a native of Syria, will be tried before a Superior Court jury.
The 24-year-old Hourani, of Black Rock Turnpike, Fairfield, is charged with attempted murder, first-degree sexual assault, aggravated first-degree sexual assault, first-degree assault and first-degree burglary.
Source: www.connpost.com
California - A state appeals court on Wednesday upheld the murder conviction of a man who was tricked by detectives into leaving his DNA on a coffee cup more than 30 years after the killing.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal found that Adolph Laudenberg, 81, left the cup on a table in a coffee shop and therefore did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
The ruling rejected a defense argument that the trial court erred in allowing the evidence. In 2006, Laudenberg was convicted of the 1972 strangling of Lois Petrie, 43, based on DNA evidence that detectives obtained from the plastic foam cup and DNA recovered from the body at autopsy.
Source: www.mercurynews.com
Maryland - Detectives from the Montgomery County Police Cold Case Unit recently solved a 26-year-old murder by using DNA evidence, bringing closure to both the family of the victim — and to the family of the detective who investigated the crime.
Police said Gerald Anderson Abernathy, a convicted offender who was serving a life sentence for kidnapping and murder in a North Carolina prison, was responsible for the 1982 murder of Wendy Stark, a 20-year-old University of Maryland student who worked in Rockville.
Abernathy died at age 66 of lung cancer while still in prison in October 2007, according to police. Source: www.gazette.net Pennsylvania - A man suspected of raping and murdering an Elk County hairdresser nearly a decade ago was linked to the crime recently through DNA evidence, police said. Lawrence Donachy, 33, of St. Marys, was arrested and charged with homicide, rape and other offenses related to the 1999 killing of Irene Challingsworth. Donachy was already in state prison on unrelated charges. A sample of DNA that Donachy was required to give as a prisoner matched DNA left at the scene, police said. Source: www.pennlive.com Florida - Winter Haven police have arrested a 25-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Ecuador and charged him with the rapes of two local women. Mejia-Zapata is charged with two counts of armed burglary and seven counts of sexual battery with a deadly weapon. The charges stem from the rape of a woman in February and the rape of another woman in late June in the same southeast Winter Haven neighborhood. DNA evidence and an alert area resident helped lead investigators to Mejia-Zapata, authorities said.
Source: www.newschief.com
Maryland - A 48-year-old man serving a prison term for a rape six years ago in Baltimore County has been linked to a 1980 rape through DNA testing, county police said yesterday.
Source: www.baltimoresun.com
Missouri - Police say DNA could solve two sex attacks on women -- one of which ended with a victim naked and bruised on a stranger's doorstep, pleading for help.
Justin Goben, 22, of Springfield, has been linked by DNA to those assaults and stands accused of various sex and assault charges.
Sgt. Randall Latch said more investigation could also lead to more charges. "He's a suspect in other cases," Latch said.
Source: www.news-leader.com
Massachusetts - Utilizing DNA evidence, police were able to arrest a Dorchester man yesterday in connection with a series of unsolved rapes dating back nearly two decades. One of those cases had led to a man being wrongly imprisoned until 2004
The DNA that had cleared Anthony Powell, 38, of Boston of rape eventually led prosecutors to Jerry Dixon, 35, who was arraigned yesterday in Suffolk Superior Court in the same rape case, along with one other.
Source: www.boston.com InternationalGuatemala - Adoption officials said DNA tests indicated that a Guatemalan baby reported stolen from her mother was being adopted by an American couple. Jaime Tecu, director of a team of experts reviewing all pending Guatemalan adoptions, said the test results represented the first time officials had directly linked a baby reported stolen by its mother to the country’s fraud-plagued adoption system. The authorities have long said that children were stolen or bought before thousands of pending adoptions were frozen in May. The child’s mother, Ana Escobar, said armed men locked her in a closet in March 2007 at the family’s shoe store north of Guatemala City and took the 6-month-old. She spent months searching hospitals and orphanages. Source: www.nytimes.com
Australia - Two decades after their murders shocked Victoria, a man has been charged over the horrific deaths of a Ferntree Gully mother and daughter.
Russell John Gesah, 43, was charged with the brutal murders of Margaret Tapp, 35, and her nine-year-old daughter Seana on August 8, 1984.
Homicide detectives this morning were granted permission to question Gesah before charging him with two counts of murder.
Investigators compared DNA evidence found on an item of Seana's clothing with tens of thousands of profiles on the national DNA computer database before coming up with an alleged match.
Source: www.news.com.au
Did You Know?
What is ‘touch DNA’?Kevin Noppinger, the lab director for DNA Labs International, explains to Karen Leigh how Touch DNA Analysis works and why it is more powerful than older DNA testing techniques.
For a brief interview with CBS4Denver please go to:www.google.com
The DNA Informant is a free bi-weekly email newsletter, published by DNA Labs International. DNA Labs International is a private, ISO 17025 Accredited, Forensic Serology and DNA Identity Testing Laboratory, founded in 2004 by a Board Certified Fellow in Molecular Biology with over two decades of experience in Forensic Serology and DNA Analysis in United States Crime Labs. Our primary mission is to help our clients identify criminals within their jurisdiction by providing timely, accurate and cost effective DNA testing results. To do this we created an organization based on industry best practices from over 20 State Crime Labs around the United States. We are located in Deerfield Beach, Florida, just minutes from the Fort Lauderdale airport. DNA Labs International’s services are now available for individual cases and outsourcing contracts. Please keep us in mind as you start to consider your outsourcing needs, regular and rush cases and DNA case review. Editor: Karen Daurie |
