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Please see our “Did You Know?” section toward the end of this issue. Topic: Uncovering DNA's 'sweet' secretIn addition, we are including another section on DNA Collection at the end of the newsletter. Over the past two weeks, the Department of Justice announced $125M in Grants for President Bush's DNA Initiative and Other Crime-Solving Forensic Services. In San Francisco, a $400,000 federal grant has been announced to help solve cold cases. From a research perspective “the Forensic Science Service (FSS) is piloting a computer-based analysis system which can interpret previously unintelligible DNA samples.” It was also announced that an American has won the 2006 Nobel Prize in chemistry for DNA work. The award “will go to Stanford biologist Roger Kornberg, who discovered how cells read genetic information encoded in DNA.” Following these news stories, you will find a number of new and ongoing cases. The Department of Justice has awarded more than $125 million in grants nationwide as part of President Bush's DNA Initiative, Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology, and for other crime-solving forensic services. In addition to the funding provided through the DNA Initiative, $18.5 million has been awarded to improve criminal justice forensic services. The grants will be administered by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research, development, and evaluation arm of the Department of Justice. While DNA technology is helping to solve crimes and exonerate the innocent across the country, many public crime laboratories are not fully equipped to handle the increased demand for DNA testing. Some laboratories have large backlogs of unanalyzed DNA samples from convicted offenders and crime scenes, which can significantly delay criminal investigations and the administration of justice. However, progress has been made since the DNA Initiative began. -- In March 2003, the Department estimated that the backlog of rape and homicide cases was approximately 350,000. To date, NIJ has provided over $76 million to perform DNA analysis on samples in over 48,000 cases. Since 2003, the FBI's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database of DNA samples has increased from 52,000 to more than 144,000 unique DNA profiles from crimes. -- In March 2003, the Department estimated that the number of backlogged DNA-convicted offender samples was between 200,000 and 300,000, and that another 500,000 to 1 million samples had yet to be collected from offenders who were required by law to give such a sample. To date, NIJ has paid for the analysis of over 1.2 million samples. In Fiscal Year 2006, NIJ will pay for the analysis of over 800,000 additional samples. Since 2003, the FBI's CODIS database has grown from 1.3 million DNA profiles of known offenders to over 3.4 million. -- Extensive training materials and programs have been developed for police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges, forensic scientists, medical personnel, victim service providers, corrections officers, and probation and parole officers. -- NIJ has funded research on tools to analyze smaller pieces of evidence, highly-degraded evidence, and to make DNA analysis less costly. Since 2003, NIJ has made grants in excess of $14 million for new research on DNA tools and techniques. In fiscal year 2006 NIJ will make an additional $12.2 million in research, development and evaluation grants for DNA and other areas of forensic science. Nationwide, in fiscal year 2006 NIJ has awarded over $73 million to help eliminate DNA sample backlogs. Of that $73 million, $19.2 million will be for DNA casework; $39.5 million for DNA laboratory capacity building; and $14.9 million for convicted offender testing. The Department is investing $3.7 million for DNA training; $12.2 million for DNA and forensics research, development and evaluation; $2 million for use of DNA in missing persons cases, and $4.9 million to the National Institute of Standards and Technology for development of forensic science tools and standards. In addition, $3.9 million soon will be made available for post conviction DNA testing assistance. More information about President Bush's DNA Initiative can be found at http://www.dna.gov. NIJ has also awarded $18.5 million for Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grants that can be applied to improving non-DNA forensic services. This funding represents the largest amount of money provided by the Department to support state and local forensic efforts. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref01.html San Francisco authorities hope a $400,000 federal grant designed to coordinate the city's forensics lab with a statewide DNA database will help solve a number of cases dating back as far as 1968. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. joined San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris and police Chief Heather Fong in Mayor Gavin Newsom's office today to announce the federal grant, which is earmarked specifically for unsolved cases that have been revitalized through the development of a statewide DNA database. Called cold cases, the investigations involve mostly murders and sexual assaults in which all leads have been exhausted. Harris said there were at least 61 major cases in the city, while police report that there are hundreds more already logged and ready to be revisited. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref04.html The Forensic Science Service (FSS) is piloting a computer-based analysis system which can interpret previously unintelligible DNA samples. It claims the technique is a world first which will boost its crime detection rates by more than 15%. The method is being tested by the West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Northumbria and Humberside police forces. It allows scientists to pinpoint DNA samples when more than one individual has touched a surface, where only small amounts of DNA have been left behind or only poor quality material was found. We think we can boost the success rate or our ability to pass on new leads to the police by around 10% - Paul Hackett, Forensic Science Service FFS DNA manager Paul Hackett told BBC News the pilot scheme "aims to show how we can deploy that and put that in the police hands so that they can use it effectively. "This particular technique is based on the foundations of existing DNA profiling technology so the laboratory-based techniques are exactly the same as we have used over the last 10 years, so that's very robust, very well established. "This application is a piece of software, along with a forensic scientist, that can help us interpret previously complex, mixed DNA profiles that the forensic scientist really couldn't interpret." 'Cold cases' FSS scientists believe the technique, called DNAboost, could be the key to countless "cold cases" which have lain dormant in police files. Mr Hackett said the system could potentially have an impact on both "cold cases" and future trials. "The beauty of this technology is it's both retrospective and we can apply it on future cases," he said "So the technique it is best applied to, was introduced a decade ago - the Forensic Science Service has tested over half-a-million cases in the last 10 years - and we think we can boost the success rate or our ability to pass on new leads to the police by around 10%. "So that's tens of thousands of cases going back into history. If we look forward then we can apply it to cases that are coming into the lab from today." The pilot will run for three months, after which it is due to be extended to remaining police forces. Det Sgt Kevin Morten, head of scientific support services at South Yorkshire police, told the BBC: "If an offender enters a crime scene and touches a surface they will leave a small trace of DNA; the next person who's in that scene, or has been in previously, will also leave small traces of DNA. "Previously we have not been able to split those profiles, but with this technique we'll be able to do that and that will assist us greatly in further detecting crime". The FSS can already handle more than 10,000 DNA crime stain samples each month and about 50,000 DNA samples from individuals. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref02.html The 2006 Nobel Prize in chemistry will go to Stanford biologist Roger Kornberg, who discovered how cells read genetic information encoded in DNA. Kornberg is the second in his family to win the prize -- his father Arthur won the 1959 Nobel Prize in medicine for his own work on DNA. Kornberg created the first detailed description of DNA transcription -- the process which transfers genetic information stored in DNA to proteins in the body. DNA can be subdivded into genes, which encode specialized proteins that perform specific functions in a cell. Through transcription and translation, cells can read the genetic information from the DNA and produce the amino acids that make up proteins. Kornberg created the first detailed pictures of how this process works at the cellular level. His images shed light on one of the most important chemical reactions in the human body. He will receive the prize, worth $1.4 million, in Stockholm later this year. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref03.html New and ongoing cases involving DNA Evidence include: Florida - Sadrac Nelson's DNA was found all over the house of his former live-in girlfriend after she was stabbed to death in October 2004. And on her too. "Meaningless circumstantial evidence," defense attorney Elizabeth Ramsey said during closing arguments Wednesday in Nelson's first-degree murder trial. "The defendant's DNA is everywhere, and it's everywhere that matters," countered prosecutor Jennifer Millien. "We have the right man." A jury agreed Wednesday night, convicting Nelson, 33, of first-degree murder in the slaying of Marie Fleurizard, 38, at her suburban West Palm Beach home. The mother of four was studying to be a nurse. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref05.html Georgia - The prosecution rested its case Wednesday against Ron Oneil Young after presenting damning forensic evidence that tied him to the brutal sexual assaults of five Savannah women. The district attorney's office called more than 30 witnesses who methodically recounted the attacks, the steps that led to Young's capture, and the science that resulted in a 31-count indictment. Barbara Retzer, a forensic biologist with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab, said DNA extracted from swabs of Young's mouth matched evidence collected from each of the victims. The odds of the DNA belonging to someone other than Young: one in 60 quadrillion, Retzer said. There are only 6.5 billion humans on the planet. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref06.html North Carolina - The family of a woman brutally murdered in 1985 finally has closure knowing that her killer is behind bars — and has been for nine years. This is a time of joy and grief for the family of Benita Green Murphy whose case remained open without an arrest until Wednesday. Evidence that was re-submitted to the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) Crime Laboratory for DNA analysis was matched to a convicted offender in the state’s database. Johnny Ray Mewborne, 44, currently serving a life sentence at Maury Correctional Institution for a violent habitual felon charge, was charged Wednesday with the murder, rape and kidnapping of Benita Murphy, as well as the armed robbery of Scotchman’s Store on North Queen Street. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref07.html Michigan - A T-shirt stained with Ricky Holland's blood provides clues as to how the boy was killed, a forensic scientist testified Tuesday during Lisa Holland's murder trial. Much of the blood - which probably came from a wound on the back or top of Ricky's head - either dripped from his hair or brushed against the shirt like a paintbrush, said Ann Gordon of the Michigan State Police. The shirt's Sea World logo and small, cartoon drawings of a penguin, whale and dolphin were a stark contrast to the dozen or so patches of blood of varying sizes. Lisa Holland is charged with murder and child abuse in the death of her adopted 7-year-old son, Ricky. Her husband, Tim Holland, has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and is expected to testify against her when he takes the stand today. The trial is in its fourth week. Tim Holland has said Lisa told him she killed Ricky with a hammer. Two Ingham County Jail inmates also have said Lisa confessed to striking the boy with a hammer. Lisa Holland has said Tim killed the boy. DNA tests revealed the blood came from the male child of Ricky's biological parents - meaning it was overwhelmingly likely Ricky's. The 31 shredded pieces of the T-shirt were sealed in a plastic Ziploc bag, which was discovered inside a backpack Lisa Holland tried to take from the family's Williamston home during a Sept. 6 police search. Lisa Holland's attorneys have said she didn't know the plastic bag was inside the backpack, which was being used as a diaper bag. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref08.html Missouri - A single hair left at a rape scene almost 30 years ago could be the evidence that keeps a convicted rapist behind bars. DNA testing linked the hair from a 1977 sexual assault to Robert L. Fellows. He is in prison for a conviction in another rape that same year but is eligible for parole. Fellows, 55, remains a suspect in more than a dozen so-called pillowcase rapes that terrorized the midtown and Country Club Plaza areas in 1976 and 1977. A serial rapist used a pillowcase or other cloth to keep victims from seeing his face. The attacks began shortly after Fellows’ August 1976 release from prison for another rape, Jackson County Prosecutor Mike Sanders said, and ended after his May 1977 arrest for one pillowcase rape. He was convicted in that case and sentenced to 75 years. Now authorities contend that DNA from a hair left in a bathroom during a March 16, 1977, sexual assault matched his DNA in a felon database. Sanders unsealed new charges against Fellows: two counts of rape and one each of sodomy and robbery in a crime that reaches back almost three decades. “This is the oldest cold-hit DNA case to be charged in this region’s history,” Sanders said at a courthouse news conference. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref09.html California - The man accused of being the "60 Freeway Slayer," who terrorized the San Gabriel Valley in the early 1990s by strangling six women, won't dispute that he is the killer as his trial gets underway this week. Ivan J. Hill, who was linked to the crimes a decade later through DNA evidence, will center his defense not on whether he committed the crimes but on whether he should get the death penalty. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref10.html Alabama - Authorities say the skeletal remains found at a Dothan construction site almost three years ago have been identified through D-N-A testing as those of a missing woman, Cynthia Young. Dothan Police Captain Nick Monday says Young was reported missing in 2001 by her brother and she would be 40 years old this year. Her brother, however, said he hadn't seen her since 1999, so there's no certain date for her death. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref11.html New York - A man who spent 21 years behind bars for the rape of a police officer's wife was freed Friday after being cleared by DNA testing. Scott Fappiano, 44, was released at a Brooklyn court hearing just one day after test results showed that his DNA did not match that at the crime scene. A judge ordered his release after the district attorney's office agreed to a request by attorneys for the Innocence Project, which uses DNA to exonerate convicts. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref12.html New York - Steven Cunningham knew it would come out someday. But for almost 17 years, he kept a secret from relatives, friends and law enforcement — a silence that sent a naive teenager to prison for more than half his life for a crime Cunningham committed. In a jailhouse confession yesterday, the 46-year-old convicted murderer admitted that he killed 15-year-old Angela Correa in the woods behind Peekskill's Hillcrest Elementary School in November 1989 — four years before the slaying of a schoolteacher would land him behind bars. Two weeks ago, Correa's Peekskill High School classmate, Jeffrey Deskovic, was released from prison after a DNA match linked Cunningham to the crime. The inmate insisted yesterday that he had no idea anyone was ever charged or sent to prison for his crime, and that if he had, he would have spoken up sooner. But Deskovic, now 32 and staying with a friend in Peekskill until he finds an apartment, said it was unfathomable that someone who remained in town in the wake of Correa's high-profile slaying would have been oblivious to the outcome of the investigation. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref13.html South Carolina - A man has pleaded guilty to murder in the killing of a Sumter woman 17 years ago after investigators were able to link his DNA to the crime scene thanks to his brother, who was in prison. Tony Oliveo Mack, 41, of Fayetteville, N.C., was sentenced to 30 years in prison Thursday after accepting a plea bargain from prosecutors. Joyce Robinson, 29, was found dead in her Sumter home in April 1989. Authorities said the killer had nearly severed her head with a knife. It was a violent struggle as Robinson had numerous defensive stab wounds on her body, Sumter Police Department attorney Martha Horne said. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref14.html Florida - Sophisticated DNA testing has solved a 1990 rape and murder of an elderly Cocoa woman who was attacked while caring for her 106-year-old mother, police said. Police said Soto, who has been in jail since 1999, was linked through DNA to the murder of Charlie Creech. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref15.html Maryland - Prosecutors rested their murder case Wednesday against Jack L. Hammersla Jr. after a forensic chemist testified that blood found on Hammersla's jacket and on a 2-by-6 board recovered from the crime scene matched the DNA of homicide victim Shirley P. Finfrock. Hammersla, 49, faces a charge of first-degree premeditated murder and two first-degree felony murder charges, one arising out of a first-degree burglary and one arising out of a third-degree burglary, in the Nov. 12, 2003, bludgeoning death of the 68-year-old Finfrock. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref16.html Missouri - DNA found under the fingernails of murder victim William J. Jennings of Shawnee did not come from the man charged with killing him, a DNA analyst testified Wednesday. Gina Pineda, an assistant director with a private DNA lab in New Orleans, testified for the defense in the trial of David Lee Stagg, 58, of Warrensburg. Stagg is charged with first-degree murder in the April 2004 death of Jennings, 51, Stagg’s romantic partner. Prosecutors contend Stagg strangled Jennings in Jennings’ home after the two argued. Stagg, a professor at the University of Central Missouri, acknowledges that the two argued the night of April 24. But he says he left the residence by about midnight. Jennings’ body was found the next day. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref17.html Georgia - An accused child sex abuser rejected a Conecuh County prosecutor's offer, even after state forensics workers reported finding his semen on the nightgown of his alleged victim. Jack Wiley was charged with two rape counts in connection with a three-year-old girl and with sodomy in connection with a 17-year-old boy. Wiley's attorney, Sally Stoddard, said yesterday they offered him 25 years on two counts, to run concurrently. The case drew national attention in January after a Georgia woman saw Wiley and the three-year-old in a Conecuh County convenience store. Officers arrested the 58-year-old Wiley and his wife, 40-year-old Glenna Faye Cavender Marshall. Investigations showed both had a long list of aliases and criminal records. The girl and boy who were found in the couple's care were examined and investigators said a doctor found evidence the young girl had been repeatedly raped. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref18.html Maryland - Two Baltimore men imprisoned for two decades for the rape and murder of a young woman in her row house have proved their innocence through new DNA testing, their attorneys say. This is the second time in recent months that fresh testing has shown that DNA collected at a Baltimore crime scene does not belong to a person convicted in the case. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref19.html Indiana - A DNA test has linked a man to a hat that police believe belonged to whoever molested an 8-year-old boy in a Zionsville park in June, authorities said. Stephen J. Taylor was charged last week with a felony count of molestation after police received results from the test. Investigators believe Taylor molested the boy at Creekside Park after offering him $100 to perform an oral sex act on the boy, Zionsville police said. Before Taylor was identified as a suspect, investigators believed that a Chicago Bulls cap that was found in the park belonged to whoever molested the boy. Investigators sent the cap to a laboratory, which collected DNA from the object, police said. On Aug. 30, Taylor was arrested in a Plainfield park after someone complained that he was acting suspicious, authorities said. Police said they confiscated from Taylor a note offering to give someone $100 if they would allow him to perform oral sex on the note's recipient. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref20.html Illinois - Twenty months after an 81-year-old man was severely beaten and robbed in his West Side home, a Chicago man has been arrested and charged with the crime because of forensic testing of a gold chain necklace found at the crime scene. When the victim was discovered at his house, in the 1500 block of North Mason Avenue, authorities said a gold chain necklace was found lying next to him that appeared to have been torn off in a struggle. Forensic testing was completed Aug. 21 and the DNA matched that of Ames, authorities said. Prosecutors allege Ames, arrested Thursday, knew the victim's wife. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref21.html Indiana - Relatives of a man stabbed to death in 1984 were surprised to learn that murder charges have been filed against two men after a DNA test linked one of them to the crime. No one had previously been charged in the killing of Frederick David, 43, but his family never forgot that day. The two men charged with David's death - Ronald Glenn, 43, and Alphonzo Easley, 44, - made their initial hearings Friday in Morgan Circuit Court and denied killing him or knowing each other. A Morgan County sheriff's deputy re-examining the case in 2003 found blood samples that were taken from the scene of the attack and submitted them to the state police laboratory for DNA testing. Prosecutors say those results matched Easley, who has a 1997 conviction for battery and is being held in Marion County on burglary and robbery charges. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_29_oct_06/vol29_ref22.html Did You Know? Topic: Uncovering DNA's 'sweet' secretDNA's simple and elegant structure - the "twisted ladder," with sugar-phosphate chains making up the "rails" and oxygen- and nitrogen-containing chemical "rungs" tenuously uniting the two halves - seems to be the work of an accomplished sculptor. Yet the graceful, sinuous profile of the DNA double helix is the result of random chemical reactions in a simmering, primordial stew. DNA Collection The information below was presented atthe DNA/body fluids workshop given at the Forensic Science Society AGM in November 2005. Body Fluids Forum of UK and Ireland – To Wet or Not to Wet Gerry Davidson presented the results from an investigation into whether an item should or should not be dampened for acid phosphotase testing. The results from the experiment showed that just wetting the blotting paper, rather than the item and the blotting paper is conducive to a higher recovery of spermatozoa, but the chemical reaction time is marginally longer. Other findings showed that the size of stain on dampened material was larger due to diffusion of the water-soluble AP and that the spermatozoa also diffused within the stain. It was also shown that transfer of spermatozoa to the blotting paper was rare in both situations. The conclusions drawn were that the scientist should make a choice on an item to item basis, taking into account the water resistance of the material and the tightness of the weave. Source: The Forensic Science Society Interfaces - Number 44 Oct - Dec 2005 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 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 |
