In addition to positive public opinion, the majority of state legislatures continue supporting the expansion of DNA testing, refinement in evidence collection and training.

New York State has dedicated $1 million to support the collection and processing of DNA samples from property crime scenes in 11 IMPACT counties.

In addition, officials from the Division of Criminal Justice Services and New York State Police will offer training sessions for prosecutors and investigators. The training will focus on the recognition of potential sources of DNA evidence at burglary scenes, collection and preservation techniques and the legal issues associated with using DNA as evidence in court.

"I also want to again urge the Assembly Majority to pass my legislation, which would require all convicted criminals in New York State to give a DNA sample to the New York State DNA Databank. Every time New York's Databank is expanded, more heinous crimes are solved, and future crimes are prevented," [said Governor George Pataki].

Two recent studies by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services show that, on average, offenders linked to crimes using the DNA Databank had approximately 12 prior convictions. In addition, these studies and a review of the "hits" from the DNA Databank show most criminals do not specialize in their offending patterns. For example, of the more than 1,100 offenders linked to sexual assault cases through a DNA Databank "hit," over 80% were in the Databank based on a prior conviction for an offense other than a sex related offense, such as larceny, burglary or drug violation.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_6_nov_05/vol6_ref01.html

Kansas lawmakers seem to agree and “want anyone arrested for a serious crime to give a DNA sample.” They say it's a way to fight crime.

Without DNA Wichita's most notorious serial killer BTK might not be behind bars.
Now the Kansas Bureau of Investigation is talking about taking DNA samples from anyone arrested for a serious crime.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_6_nov_05/vol6_ref02.html

In Connecticut, veteran criminalist Michael Bourke was matching forensic evidence taken from crime scenes against the DNA profiles of convicted felons and got 12 hits in one day at the Connecticut State Police Laboratory. That could eventually translate to police and prosecutors closing 12 cases of rape and burglary.

"The last 2½ years, we went from a hit once every few months to one a week," said Bourke, lead criminalist for the DNA unit.

But those numbers will continue to rise as the DNA of more and more convicted felons is added to the convicted offender database at the laboratory. A state law that went into effect in 2004 ordered the collection of the genetic material of every convicted felon.

"The intent behind the law is to let any felon who has committed another crime know that when any DNA is left at a scene, [it's] going to be checked against this database," said Andrew Crumbie, chief of staff for Public Safety Commissioner Leonard C. Boyle. "If you're a felon and have gotten caught and convicted, chances are you're going to get caught for any past or future crimes."

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_6_nov_05/vol6_ref03.html

Before summarizing some of the most recent cases involving DNA evidence, I would also like to mention another case in which DNA “could prove an executed inmate’s guilt or innocence.” It is very likely that many of you are already familiar with the case of Roger Keith Coleman, who was executed in 1992.

The governor's office of Virginia, a group that helps prove inmates innocent and a scientist in California are trying to reach an agreement on possible DNA testing in the case.

Centurion Ministries of Princeton, N.J., requested in 2003 that the testing be ordered by Gov. Mark R. Warner after efforts in the courts by Centurion and four newspapers, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch, failed.
Warner leaves office in January.

Some believe that Coleman was innocent and that DNA testing could prove for the first time since executions were allowed to resume in the U.S. in 1976 that an innocent person has been executed. Others say testing would likely further implicate Coleman, putting to rest decades of controversy.

The evidence, spermatozoa, is in a vial held frozen for 15 years by Edward T. Blake of Forensic Science Associates, in California.
Blake has said DNA technology has since progressed and it might now be possible to definitively prove whether Coleman was guilty.
The sample was taken from Wanda McCoy, who was raped and murdered in Grundy on March 10, 1981.

Coleman was tried, convicted and sentenced to death in 1982. The evidence against him included blood and hair samples and his confession to a fellow jail inmate. Coleman had an alibi, but the jury didn't buy it.

Coleman was executed on May 20, 1992, not long after he made the cover of Time magazine and was interviewed for TV by Larry King.
DNA testing was not available at the time of his trial. However, in 1990, a judge had Blake test the evidence. Blake concluded that Coleman and the donor of the tested spermatozoa were within the same 2 percent of the population who could have raped McCoy.
John C.Tucker said that new testing should be done for two reasons: If Coleman was innocent, it's important to catch the real killer, and it's important to the public debate about the death penalty to know if an innocent man was executed.

The Virginia attorney general's office fought new testing of the evidence in the courts. However, a spokeswoman said yesterday that the decision is now up to Warner.

For more details on this story, please go to:
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_6_nov_05/vol6_ref04.html

Other recent cases in which DNA evidence has been applied, include:
New Jersey - DNA evidence has cleared a 15-year-old township boy who was charged with raping a 39-year-old woman in her Pennington Road home in August and now investigators are seeking the public's help in catching the attacker, officials said yesterday.
Neither the teen nor the victim have been identified by authorities.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_6_nov_05/vol6_ref05.html

New York - A homeless ex-con Reggie Owen, 27, was busted for raping an 88-year-old woman in her lower East Side apartment after cops matched his DNA to evidence recovered from the horrific crime, police said yesterday.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_6_nov_05/vol6_ref06.html

Pennsylvania - A jury has found a Washington County man guilty of the murder of a 14-year-old girl in 1977.
Fifty-year-old David Kennedy was convicted yesterday of the first-degree murder of Debbie Capiola.
Prosecutors say the Findlay girl was abducted while waiting for her school bus and then murdered - strangled with her own jeans.
Though police questioned Kennedy early on, they didn't have enough evidence to convict him until new DNA technology tied sperm found on the jeans to him in 2000.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_6_nov_05/vol6_ref07.html

Texas - DNA evidence helped prosecutors win capital murder indictments in the slayings of five people who were kidnapped from a fast-food restaurant more than two decades ago.
Thursday's indictments of Darnell Hartsfield, 44, and Romeo Pinkerton, 47, were the result of years of work by investigators.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_6_nov_05/vol6_ref08.html

Texas - A 40-year-old former peace officer linked by DNA to six northwest Houston rapes in 2001 and 2002 surrendered at the Harris County Sheriff's Office early today.
Jerry Lewis Ford turned himself in about 1:30 a.m. to sheriff's detectives at 49 San Jacinto, according to a statement from the sheriff's office.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_6_nov_05/vol6_ref09.html

Oregon - DNA analysis has linked a man convicted of killing a prostitute in 1977 to the unsolved strangling of a woman the previous year, city police say.

Police recently went to the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla to get a new DNA sample from Morris John Frampton for a second comparison with evidence from the killing of Agnes Myra Williams, whose was found in a wooded ravine in West Seattle on Oct. 19, 1976.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_6_nov_05/vol6_ref10.html

New York - Keith Lamar Laster was found guilty Wednesday of raping four Rochester schoolgirls a decade ago.

Jurors deliberated less than two hours before finding that Laster, 37, raped the girls, ages 12 to 17, as they walked to their school bus stops in 1995 and 1997.

None of the victims could identify Laster as their attacker. The key evidence against him was DNA left on the girls, which was matched to Laster through a DNA database when he surrendered a DNA sample after being charged with raping an Alabama woman in 2004.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_6_nov_05/vol6_ref11.html

Florida - DNA evidence conclusively showed that a slain woman's blood was found in her boyfriend's vehicle, forensic experts told jurors as the prosecution finished its case against the man charged with killing his girlfriend and her son.

Former state crime lab analyst Gabriel Caceres and Martin Tracey, a professor of biology at Florida International University, testified Tuesday that blood from the carpet of a sport utility vehicle owned by John Mosley Jr. was a genetic match to the remains of his girlfriend, Lynda Wilkes, 40. Mosley, 41, is on trial for the murders of Wilkes and her 10-month-old son last year.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_6_nov_05/vol6_ref12.html

Louisiana - Technicians at the Acadiana Criminalistics Laboratory recently found a scientific side door leading Ville Platte police to the arrest of a man in a series of sexual-assault cases long gone cold.

Based on leads given them by the crime lab, police tracked down Normand Wilson of Bossier City in connection with a string of five sexual assaults in the Ville Platte area between 1987 and 2001.

Ray Wickenheiser, director of the crime lab, said Tuesday that the lab had DNA samples for all five assaults, but could not find a match in any DNA database over the years.

He said investigators knew the same person was involved in all five attacks, but not the person's identity.

The beginning of the break in the case came from a sixth, apparently unrelated, sexual assault in the area.

Wickenheiser said the DNA in the sixth case was not a match for the other five, but technicians saw similarities and believed that whoever committed the sixth crime might have been a close relative of whoever committed the other five.

Ville Platte police investigators took that lead and worked it until they found Wilson, whose DNA profile allegedly matches that of the samples from the five unsolved cases, Wickenheiser said.

Wickenheiser said crime lab technicians have tried the theory of using apparent similarities in DNA samples to get leads on cases, but this was the first case where it had panned out.

He said that, in some cases, DNA samples that don't match show too many similarities to be random and indicate possible blood relatives.

Wickenheiser said the lab has worked to refine its ability to spot patterns that indicate possible relatives.
He said that such connections don't make cases, but do provide leads for investigators who have been unable to find a solid trail to a suspect.

"This is just a means of giving them leads," Wickenheiser said.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_6_nov_05/vol6_ref13.html

Texas - Homicide detectives say Marco Garcia, 29, sexually assaulted and beat to death Brandi Brooks, 36. Her body was found by an industrial plant in northeast Houston back in 1998.

Detectives had no leads until Garcia was sentenced to 25 years for an aggravated robbery and home invasion and had to submit DNA. It matched that from the murder scene.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_6_nov_05/vol6_ref14.html

New York - Evidence presented in the Christopher Rhodes murder trial in Orange County Court in Goshen proved that Christopher is not the biological father of little Jerica Rhodes, who was killed last January at her elementary school in Highland Falls.

The paternity test analyzed at the New York State Forensic Center last May showed that certain biological matter which is present in DNA from related individuals is different in the case of Jerica and Christopher Rhodes.

Defense attorney Sol Lesser strongly objected to this information being available to the jury claiming it is not relevant to this case. He stated that it is just another prejudice against his client.

Prosecutor John Geidel said that it is pertinent to the case because it shows a possible motive for the defendant. He said that he can’t be certain that Rhodes didn’t know about this fact before his daughter’s death, and that he doesn’t know whether or not Rhodes will take the stand later in the trial.

Geidel said that he could not take the chance of waiting for Lesser to decide whether or not to call his client to the stand; in which case Geidel would ask him if he knew about Jerica not being his daughter.

The judge agreed to allow the paternity test to be added to the list of evidence, and agreed with prosecutors that it is significant to their case against Rhodes.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_6_nov_05/vol6_ref15.html

Ask the Informant
Question 1

Who has had experience with Abacus’s forensic saliva identification test SALIgAE? What validations have been done? What about mixtures?

Answer 1

The SALIgAE saliva test is a new procedure from Abacus Diagnostics, and currently there is limited information available on validation studies and the reliability of the kit.

In October of this year, the West Virginia State Police Crime Laboratory did publish the results of a study they conducted entitled: Validation of Abacus SALIgAE® Test for the Forensic Identification of Saliva.

The lab indicated that “based on the results from this study the SALIgAE® test has proven to be sensitive, simple, accurate, and could become a valuable tool to our lab.”

For further details and information on this study, please go to:

http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/SalivaValidation.pdf

Question 2

What is a John Doe DNA Warrant?

Answer 2

 When the name of an individual is unknown, a “John Doe” DNA warrant/complaint may be filed. The DNA profile of the perpetrator, provided by the evidence in the investigation, is used as the unique identifier, describing the defendant rather than providing his or her name. Such a filing prevents the running of the statute of limitations in serious violent crimes.

For more information on John Doe warrants please go to:
http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/johndoe.html

Source: Denver District Attorney’s Office

Question 3

When a sample proves insufficient, for whatever reason, is it possible to run it again? If so, how many times before contamination or degradation dirties the data?

Answer 3

Let me start out by explaining the procedure. The stain sample is placed in small tubes and various chemical solutions are added to extract the DNA. This purified DNA (called genomic DNA) is amplified (copied) and then analyzed to determine the sample DNA profile.

In answer to the questions:

1. Yes, since stains are not uniform in nature a second lab could take a second stain cutting and obtain a DNA profile.

2. If the stain material was consumed in analysis, meaning all stain material was removed and extracted, then a re-extraction would probably not be possible. However, some labs’ procedures are more sensitive and they could take the remaining genomic DNA and amplify that sample and possibly obtain a DNA profile. Most labs will have genomic material remaining. This remaining genomic DNA could be re-amplified and analyzed again depending on the final volume the lab obtained.

3. We provide service in the newest DNA area called Y-STR. This system is the most sensitive of all systems and profiles can be obtained using Y-STR that give a negative result in conventional STR. The draw back is that Y-STR is located on the Y chromosome and is therefore specific to males only.

4. Contamination or degradation should never play a role once the sample has been received in the lab. Degradation usually occurs before the lab receives the sample and contamination can occur either before or after the sample is received in the lab.

Again, please send us your questions or concerns and our expert will provide honest and candid feedback, expert@dnalabsinternational.com. 

Editor: Karen Daurie
Karen.Daurie@DNALabsInternational.com

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