Please see our “Did You Know?” section toward the end of this issue.
Topic: How do researchers trace mitochondrial DNA over centuries?
Events and conferences for 2007 that may of interest to you include:
AAFS – American Academy of Forensic Sciences – 59th Annual Meeting - February 19 through 24, 2007 in San Antonio, Texas
http://www.aafs.org/default.asp?section_id=meetings&page_id=aafs_annual_meeting.
AFDAA - The Association of Forensic DNA Analysts and Administrators - January 25 and 26, 2007 in Austin, Texas. The AFDAA is currently looking for speakers. If you are interested in giving a presentation, please contact Joe Warren at jwarren@hsc.unt.edu. For more information on the AFDAA please go to www.AFDAA.org.
If there are any events you would like for us to mention, please send me the name and dates with a website link for further details.
News over the past two weeks included the expansion of Chicago’s DNA squad to pursue rape suspects. In Indiana a unified rape case protocol has been adopted. Hospitals will be working with law enforcement on the treatment of sexual assault victims, including the preservation of DNA evidence and proper counseling.
Following these stories we are including a number of new and ongoing cases involving the use of DNA evidence.
Chicago detectives join DNA squad to pursue rape suspects
Seven of the Chicago Police Department's most experienced sex-crimes detectives are now part of a new D-N-A squad that will specialize in chasing rape suspects.
Such a unit was first suggested several years ago when Chicago Police officials saw how D-N-A was beginning to affect investigations.
In 2003, there were only 174 D-N-A hits for police officers to chase, but that number stood at 897 last year.
The seven detectives will join three other police officers in the new unit.Source:
http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref02.html
Unified rape case protocol adopted - Plan will coordinate care at city hospitals, agencies
Indiana - On Tuesday, the [Fort Wayne Sexual Assault] treatment center announced a new partnership with local law enforcement officials and the county’s five hospitals to improve and standardize the way sexual assault victims are treated.
Before, each hospital had its own process for treating victims and working with law enforcement. Now each hospital will follow the same procedure, such as preserving DNA evidence and giving each victim the opportunity to talk with a trained member of the treatment center about their health care and legal options.
Regardless of whether the victims want to report the crime to police, each one will be given the same standard of medical care, including an exam, medications if wanted and follow-up information.
Corrao said the changes are a good step in the recovery process and will help more women report the crime to police, thus discouraging rapists.
Michelle Ditton, chief nursing officer with the center, points out that one of the key issues will be having victims tell their story just one time, with a detective at the center, rather than to several officials.
She calls the hospitals heroes for thinking of the victims.
“By working together, we can provide fast information to victims of sexual assault and they can make informed decisions about the care they want, be it just health care or health and legal care,” Ditton said.
The center can also answer questions about reporting the crimes to police, what happens next and how the justice system works, she added.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref03.html
New and ongoing cases involving the use of DNA evidence include:
North Carolina - A Greenville man faces at least 14 years in prison after pleading guilty in Pitt County Superior Court Thursday to a 2002 rape.
A DNA sample collected from a rape kit and matched to a sample in a national database of convicted criminals connected Charles Eugene Gardner, 46, 422 Pittman St., to the rape of a woman at knifepoint near J.H. Rose High School.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref04.html
Missouri – A St. Louis man was arrested in Columbia Monday in connection with the rape of a 15-year-old girl in 1997.
Columbia police arrested Corrie Howlett as a result of his submission of a DNA sample to the Combined DNA Index System, which was required by his parole officer.
According to a Columbia Police Department news release, police believe Howlett broke into a home on the 300 block of South Hampton, went into the room of a sleeping 15-year-old girl and sexually assaulted her on July 19, 1997. The perpetrator of the act also held a piece of clothing over the victim’s face, which obstructed her view of the suspect.
Columbia police later collected DNA from the sexual assault survivor and sent the sample to the Missouri Highway Patrol Lab for analysis. The sample could not be identified and was later put into the CODIS, which is the database that holds all known samples of DNA from perpetrators around the country.
The sample went unidentified for years until Oct. 30 when Columbia police received information that it had a hit off of the sample they submitted to CODIS. The news release stated that Howlett, who is now a resident of St. Louis, matched the sample.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref05.html
Texas - Texas has awarded more than $450,000 to a man who was exonerated by DNA evidence after spending 18 years in prison for a sexual assault conviction.
Arthur Mumphrey was released from prison in January after his lawyer found DNA evidence clearing him in the rape of a 13-year-old girl. Mumphrey had been sentenced in 1986 to 35 years in prison.
Gov. Rick Perry pardoned Mumphrey in March, clearing his record and making him eligible for compensation. Under state law, a person pardoned based on innocence is eligible for up to $25,000 for each year in prison with a cap at $500,000.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref06.html
New York - A convicted sex offender already serving time for attempted rape is now accused of killing two women in Rochester a decade ago. An indictment unsealed today accuses 31-year-old Christopher Gifford of second-degree murder in the deaths of 26-year-old Patricia Dagget in 1995 and 24-year-old Lachelle Weaver the following year.
Authorities say Gifford was linked to Weaver's death through a D-N-A sample he submitted after being sent to prison in 1998.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref07.html
California - A forensics expert testified Monday he found what was likely Christie Wilson's DNA inside Mario Flavio Garcia's car, including on an interior door panel and mixed with Garcia's blood in small stains on the back seat.
Shawn Kacer, a senior criminalist with the California Department of Justice, also said two hairs found in and on Garcia's car -- one stuck in the door handle and another in the trunk -- were almost certainly Wilson's.
Prosecutors offered the evidence as they prepared to conclude their case against Garcia, charged with Wilson's murder. The forensic evidence was intended to contradict Garcia's statement to investigators that Wilson was never in his car.
Lead prosecutor Garen Horst told jurors earlier in the case that Wilson was in the car and the car was a "crime scene."
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref08.html
Missouri - Police said DNA evidence links a Kansas City man to a rape and robbery.
John Words was charged with the crimes that occurred back in 1991.
Investigators said Words confronted a couple, forced them to strip, took the man's wallet and raped the woman. Words allegedly gave her a quarter and told her to call someone.
Police said Words gave police a DNA sample in 2006.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref09.html
Illinois - A state DNA database has helped convict an Aurora man in a previously unsolved attack and rape from 2001.
On Friday, Isreal Garza, 33, pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse for restraining a 26-year-old Aurora woman while assaulting her.
Garza is currently serving a seven-year sentence for pointing a gun at police officers in 2002. After being sentenced in that case, Garza was required to submit a DNA sample, which was registered in the state's database.
Garza's DNA matched a sample taken from the 2001 Aurora rape case.
Garza will have to serve 85 percent of his 40-year sentence for assault.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref10.html
Oregon - A former death row inmate has been convicted of beating and strangling a woman 10 years ago.
A Pierce County jury deliberated for just over two hours Friday before finding Cecil Davis guilty of second-degree murder in the death of 45-year-old Jane Hungerford-Trapp on April 14, 1996.
Davis, who was previously convicted in a 1997 rape and murder, was long suspected in the 1996 killing. He was charged last year after better DNA technology.
Boots with the word "DieHard" embossed on the soles were found at Davis' mother's home in January 1997, and a forensic scientist determined that a bloody print next to Hungerford-Trapp's body was made by the left boot. Tests later revealed that the blood found in the soles of the boots was from Hungerford-Trapp.
Davis, who took the stand Thursday in his defense, denied killing Hungerford-Trapp.
Davis' attorney, John Cross, said he thought his client got a fair trial.
Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 8. Neeb said he'll ask that Davis be classified as a persistently violent offender and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref11.html
New York - A Virginia inmate linked by DNA to the brutal stabbing death of a Yonkers woman 13 years ago was convicted of murder yesterday in Westchester County Court.
Troy Cartwright, 42, was never a suspect in the Sept. 22, 1993, slaying of Deborah Cobb until last year, when new DNA testing tied him to blood and semen found at the crime scene because his genetic profile was in the national DNA database.
He now faces up to 25 years to life in prison, and his sentence will not begin until he completes his prison time in Virginia, possibly as late as 2029.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref12.html
California - The DNA collected from a 1999 brutal rape and robbery case in Thermalito has been matched to a prisoner convicted of homicide and robbery and who is now serving time in a Plumas County state prison.
Butte County Sheriff's detectives were elated at receiving this news Thursday from the California Department of Justice DNA laboratory in Richmond.
Based on this DNA match and further investigation by Butte County Sheriff's detectives, the charges of Robbery, Burglary, Assault, Battery, Mayhem, and Rape are being brought against Kevin Glen Rikard, 24, who is serving a 22 years to life sentence at the Kern Valley State Prison, and additional charges may also be filed.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref13.html
Pennsylvania - The main clue investigators found at a 2001 burglary in Hunterdon County was a few droplets of blood near a broken basement window.
It was not much to go on when authorities had no suspects whose DNA could be compared with the sample taken from the blood.
The case ran cold. Years passed with no arrest, and the residents, whose home in West Amwell Township was burglarized, likely assumed the culprit would never be caught.
But on Friday, one of the burglary victims finally got a chance to confront the burglar after a statewide DNA databank spit out a match on the blood DNA with a man serving time in state prison for a burglary conviction in Mercer County.
Paul D. Sootkoos, 37, formerly of Red Bank, N.J., drew a five-year state prison sentence Friday after pleading guilty during an earlier court appearance to third-degree burglary and fourth-degree theft.
The Sept. 25, 2001, burglary is now a closed case.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref14.html
Texas - Michael Blair’s lawyers presented new DNA evidence in a hearing Thursday morning at the Collin County Courthouse. The DNA evidence, which was recovered from fingernail clippings taken from Ashley Estell, allegedly does not contain any of Blair’s DNA but does include the DNA of at least two unknown males, according to records filed in a petition by Blair’s attorneys.
Ashley Estell was abducted on Labor Day weekend in 1993 from a Plano park while her family attended a soccer tournament. Estell’s body was found the next day lying on a dirt road nearly six miles from the park. Blair was convicted of capital murder in 1994 for the death of Estell.
The case received so much media attention that the Legislature created a group of laws called Ashley’s Laws which required neighborhoods to be notified of registered sex offenders and lengthened prison sentences for repeat offenders.
Blair’s lead attorney in the appeals process, Roy Greenwood said that a suspect once overlooked by the prosecution may be one match for the DNA found on Estell’s fingernails.
“We have DNA reports saying that that is not Michael Blair’s DNA underneath that little girl’s fingernails,” Greenwood said.
Josh Crowley, a convicted sex offender and a referee at the soccer fields on the day Estell disappeared, may be asked to provide DNA evidence, Greenwood said.
“We would like to find Josh Crowley and have his DNA sample taken and show that the fingernail evidence is his,” Greenwood said. “That would be a nice capper to this thing. We not only clear Michael Blair but we showed who did it. Crowley was a referee at the soccer fields at the time that Ashley disappeared and he became a person of interest because he disappeared after she disappeared. And he didn’t pick up his check that afternoon.”
Greenwood said that jury knew about Crowley but were not aware that he pleaded the Fifth Amendment when asked about the case.
“He was later interrogated and convinced the police that he didn’t have anything to do with it,” Greenwood said. “He is a child molester. According to our investigators he has been convicted in at least four states of various sexual abuse cases. He took the Fifth Amendment and we say that is probable cause. If you want to clear your name then come down here and testify.”
If Crowley is currently on probation or parole anywhere in the country for a recent conviction he could be forced to provide the state with a DNA sample. The district attorney’s office has also agreed to track down and find Crowley, according to Greenwood.
Without a DNA connection to his client, Greenwood feels that the Collin County District Attorney’s Office lacks sufficient evidence to keep Blair on death row.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref15.html
Indiana - A man accused of killing a teenager 17 years ago was charged with murder Friday, after fighting extradition from Florida for six weeks.
David Ashworth, 46, is accused of strangling Lisa Joan Summers of Indianapolis in June 1989. Summers disappeared while riding a bicycle home from her job at a fast-food restaurant. Her body was found four days later in a field on Indianapolis' far west side.
DNA evidence led to Ashworth's arrest Sept. 18 in Lakeland, Fla.
In 2004, Detective William Rogers submitted a DNA sample taken from Ashworth in 1992 for testing against blood on Summers' clothing and saliva on a cigarette butt found near her body.
Ashworth fought being brought back to Indiana from Florida to face charges.
He had been ``living there, working there (and) thinking he got away with murder,'' David Wyser, Marion County chief trial deputy prosecutor, said outside Marion Superior Court Friday.
Ashworth was being held without bond at the Marion County Jail.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref16.html
Pennsylvania - Coolbaugh Township, Monroe County: Thursday was the second day of a murder trial in Monroe County that comes 24 years after the crime occurred.
43-year old Frederick Davis is on trial for killing 60-year old Gladys Steffenhagen. The crime happened in September of 1982 inside of the Knob Motor Lodge in Mount Pocono.
Steffenhagen’s family ran the motel. Police said Davis, who was 19 at the time, rented a room at the lodge when he robbed, beat, strangled, and suffocated the victim. Investigators used DNA forensic technology to connect Davis to the crime.
He is representing himself without an attorney in the case.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref18.html
Maryland - DNA evidence was used to help investigators make an arrest this week in a Montgomery County rape case from 1992.
Gerald Anthony Smith, 36, of Forestville, was arrested Monday after his DNA matched DNA evidence collected from the victim at the hospital after she was attacked, police said.
The rape occurred in November 1992. A 21-year-old Silver Spring woman said she was walking in the area of Castle Boulevard when a man grabbed her from behind. She said he showed a handgun, threatened her with physical violence and demanded that she take him to her home. Once there, the man forced her into her apartment, where he sexually assaulted her, according to the woman. The man then searched her apartment for money, but didn't find any before leaving, the woman said.
DNA evidence taken from the victim at the hospital was matched with DNA entered into the National DNA Databank this year, and an arrest warrant for Smith was issued on Oct. 24.
Smith was charged with first-degree rape and using a handgun in the commission of a felony/violent crime.
He is being held at the Montgomery County Detention Center on $1 million bond.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref19.html
Wisconsin - A Milwaukee man accused of shooting and killing Joshua Meyers in January has been linked to the Meyer's West Twelfth Avenue apartment through a DNA sample obtained from a baseball hat found in the apartment.
Kimberly Mayer, a DNA analyst with the State Crime Lab in Madison, testified Wednesday that a DNA sample she recovered from a black baseball hat found in Joshua Meyers' apartment matched a sample provided by Keith Lee, who is accused of shooting Meyers in January.
Lee, 24, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of armed robbery as a party to a crime in connection to Meyers' January shooting death.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref20.html
California - An 80-year-old man on trial for murdering a woman more than 30 years ago confessed to a relative that he killed three other women in California, a prosecutor said.
Deputy District Attorney Lowell Anger told jurors during his opening statement Wednesday Adolph Laudenberg strangled 43-year-old Lois Petrie in 1972 and escaped arrest for decades until DNA evidence linked him to her death.
Authorities believe he was connected to the deaths of 50-year-old Catherine Medina, whose nude body was found in a San Pedro park in 1974; 54-year-old Anna Felch, also of San Pedro, who was strangled and sexually assaulted in 1974; and Leah Griffin, whose body was found in a San Francisco hotel room in 1975.
Laudenberg, who was working as a taxi driver in San Pedro at the time of the killings, was interviewed by police in 1975 after being implicated by his future daughter-in-law. Police at the time could not find physical evidence linking him to the murders.
The case was revived in 2002 after another daughter-in-law came to police with details of conversations she had with Laudenberg. The prosecutor said Laudenberg described where he dumped the bodies, matching places where the corpses were found.
Defense attorney Harvey Sherman dismissed the prosecution's case as "a circumstantial evidence case" and promised that forensic experts will testify that DNA evidence would only prove that Laudenberg "cannot be excluded" as a suspect.
He also questioned the credibility of Laudenberg's daughters-in-law.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref21.html
Michigan - A jury on Tuesday convicted a Monroe County man of sneaking into a stranger's home and sexually assaulting a 7-year-old girl four years ago.
The 12-member jury took 90 minutes to convict Ronald R. Sachs, 26, on two counts of first degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of home invasion.
The key to the conviction, Mr. Swinkey said, was that DNA collected from the victim on the night of the attack matched the defendant's DNA. A forensic scientist testified Tuesday during the two-day trial that there was little doubt the DNA belonged to Mr. Sachs.
Heather Vitta of the Michigan State Police crime lab said in court that the chances it was someone else's DNA on the little girl were 1 in 1.2 quintillion.
Mr. Swinkey said Ms. Vitta routinely runs cold cases through the system to see if there are matches. In 2005, there was a match, so she contacted Monroe sheriff's Detective Dave Davison. Soon after, he took Mr. Sachs into custody.
The trial was held before Monroe County Circuit Judge Michael W. LaBeau. He will sentence the defendant Dec. 7.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref23.html
Vermont - DNA evidence, the central component of the Burlington police case against the man they accuse of killing University of Vermont senior Michelle Gardner-Quinn, quickly is becoming the key battleground in court proceedings involving murder suspect Brian L. Rooney.
Less than a week after Rooney's arraignment on a murder charge, prosecution and defense attorneys have filed papers arguing about how and when to preserve forensic samples for independent analysis and to share the information.
Rooney, 36, of Richmond pleaded not guilty last week in Vermont District Court in Burlington to one count of aggravated murder and was ordered jailed without bail.
Police and prosecutors say Rooney abducted Gardner-Quinn, a 21-year-old environmental-studies major from Arlington, Va., shortly after 2:30 a.m. Oct. 7 in downtown Burlington, sexually assaulted and strangled her, and then dumped her body at the Huntington Gorge in Richmond. Gardner-Quinn's remains were discovered in a rocky crevice Oct. 13, the day Rooney was arrested on two unrelated sex charges but nearly two weeks before prosecutors brought the murder allegation.
Rooney's DNA matches genetic material in semen recovered from Gardner-Quinn's body, according to court papers.
"Defendant is entitled to independently test evidence analyzed by the state," wrote Rooney's court-appointed attorney, David Sleigh of St. Johnsbury, in a motion he filed last week. "Care should be taken from the outset to ensure that adequate opportunity for independent testing is preserved."
In a pair of motions related to DNA, Sleigh has asked a judge:
-- To order the Vermont Forensic Laboratory to divide all scientific evidence into "three or more parts" before testing begins to guarantee analysis won't consume all of a sample, and to require the lab to seek special permission to run a test if the sample is too small to be divided.
-- To order prosecutors to share 10 specific pieces of information related to DNA testing, such as a complete copy of the lab's case file, documents related to how forensic samples were collected and stored, copies of the lab's licenses and accreditation, and resumes and proficiency-test results for lab personnel involved in the case.
Prosecutor Justin Jiron, a deputy Chittenden County state's attorney, filed papers Tuesday objecting to Sleigh's request that samples be divided into thirds. The lab, following established national protocols, splits samples in half, Jiron wrote.
"The defense motion does not indicate a reason for departing from the protocol," Jiron wrote. "A requirement that all evidence be divided into three or more parts is unduly burdensome."
The next hearing for Rooney, who faces life in prison if convicted, is scheduled for Nov. 17.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref25.html
Arizona - The hairs found on murder victim Dr. David Brian Stidham's body do not belong to the man accused of stabbing him to death two years ago.
In fact, mitochondrial DNA testing shows the hairs are consistent with Stidham himself.
The revelation came Tuesday during a 90-minute hearing in the case of Ronald Bruce Bigger.
Bigger, 40, is accused of killing Stidham in October 2004 at the behest of former eye surgeon Bradley Schwartz.
Schwartz was convicted in May of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder but was found not guilty of first-degree murder.
After Schwartz's trial, prosecutors decided to have hairs found in Stidham's hand and on his medical scrubs undergo mitochondrial DNA testing — a more rare form of DNA testing that traces a person's lineage through the mother's side.
On Tuesday, Judge Nanette Warner of Pima County Superior Court asked if the results on the hairs were back. When told what they were, Warner said Bigger's defense team must be breathing a sigh of relief.
Apparently believing Warner was insinuating he is guilty, Bigger loudly professed he knew the hairs weren't his and had to be calmed by attorneys Jill Thorpe and Harold Higgins Jr.
Warner promptly apologized.
The results on the hairs come as somewhat of a blow to prosecutors Sylvia Lafferty and Richard Platt, who suffered setbacks during Schwartz's trial on the subject of DNA.
Prosecution witnesses during that trial initially said only one person in 20 million has the same DNA profile as was found on the knobs of Stidham's Lexus, but later had to concede the number is actually one in 13,000. As a result, the odds of the DNA belonging to Bigger and Bigger alone fell dramatically.
Interviewed after their verdict, six of the jurors said they completely discounted the DNA evidence.
Ironically, Thorpe asked Warner in August to stop prosecutors from having the hairs tested because once they were tested there wasn't anything left for defense experts to test.
Thorpe argued the hairs should be left alone so if Bigger is convicted they would be available for testing in the future, in the event scientific tests become available that wouldn't consume the hairs.
According to prosecutors, Schwartz grew to hate Stidham, a father of two, after Schwartz was forced into drug rehabilitation by the Arizona Board of Medical Examiners in the fall of 2002.
Schwartz expected Stidham, 37, to keep his practice going while he was gone, but Stidham started his own practice. As a result, Schwartz lost his hospital privileges, patients, staff members and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Schwartz is serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
Opening statements in Bigger's trial are slated for Jan. 3.
California - Two crucial witnesses received $17,500 rewards Tuesday for helping police catch a man later convicted and sentenced to death in a lunchtime slaying on a Concord walking trail.
Shawn Steelman, 39, and Bryan Gomez, 29, both of Concord, were instrumental in the case against Robert Frazier, convicted in June in the May 13, 2003, slaying of Kathleen Aiello-Loreck, said Concord police Lt. Brian Wiesendanger.
"We could not have done it without either of these people," Wiesendanger said. The two witnesses helped police link Frazier to the crime scene with DNA from a cigarette butt, among other things.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref27.html
Massachusetts - A mildly retarded man who confessed to a torture murder in Plymouth, only to be acquitted, now has a second chance to prove he did not rape and murder an elderly woman in Lakeville.
A federal judge has raised the possibility of DNA testing that could free Robert Wade, 57, from a sentence of life without parole for first-degree murder.
U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner has ruled that Wade might be entitled to have the elderly woman’s clothing and bed sheets tested for DNA if he can show the tests ‘‘could raise serious doubts about the original verdict.’’
‘‘In accordance with the State’s interest in doing justice, exculpatory DNA evidence may allow the state to both free the innocent and convict the guilty,’’ Gertner wrote.
It is the first time a judge in New England has said that prisoners have a constitutional right to the sophisticated tests after conviction.
The ruling did not order DNA tests on evidence in Wade’s case. He must first show that the tests could exonerate him, that he didn’t wait too long to appeal, and meet other standards, Gertner said.
Although DNA evidence has exonerated 183 people nationwide, Gertner’s decision is the first to give prisoners the right to DNA testing after conviction if it might prove them innocent.
Wade’s appeal lawyer, Lenox attorney Janet H. Pumphrey, said she has sought DNA testing for five years.
‘‘It could exonerate him,’’ she said.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref28.html
Texas - A man convicted of rape 25 years ago is expected to be freed from prison Tuesday, making him the 10th Dallas County man in five years exonerated by DNA testing.
Officials from the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal clinic that seeks to uncover wrongful convictions, said the number of overturned cases is "unprecedented and troubling." They plan to ask the district attorney's office to investigate whether there is a pattern to the cases.
Decorated Vietnam veteran Larry Fuller, now 57, was sentenced in August 1981 to 50 years in prison for aggravated rape. He was released in 1999 but sent back to prison last year for a parole violation, said Eric Ferrero, a spokesman for the Innocence Project.
The Dallas County District Attorney's Office will not contest Fuller's release at the hearing, which is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in the courtroom of state District Judge Lana McDaniel.
"We have joined in the defense in asking for his release," said Rachel Raya, a spokeswoman for the district attorney.
The validity of eight or nine other convictions in Dallas are being checked through DNA testing, Raya said.
The 10 men freed by DNA testing does not indicate a larger problem or pattern, she said.
"Nine out of 10 of those cases were tried 20 and 25 years ago before DNA testing was regularly utilized," Raya said. "If those cases had happened today, the defendant would have been cleared in the initial investigation."
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref29.html
Massachusetts - A string of numbers on a piece of paper - the keystone in the prosecution's case in the Christa Worthington murder trial - was finally introduced into evidence yesterday.
After days of gruesome murder scene evidence and testimony from a wide-ranging cast of witnesses, DNA linking Christopher McCowen to the former fashion writer's corpse was shown to jurors by Assistant District Attorney Robert Welsh III before court broke for the weekend.
A swab taken from Worthington's right breast after her stabbing death revealed DNA from McCowen, according to Christine Lemire, a part-time supervisor at the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab. Lemire testified about 23 samples of DNA she tested from Worthington's body and evidence at the scene, as well as 49 DNA samples gathered from other individuals.
Lemire said there is an extremely high level of statistical certainty that DNA found on Worthington's corpse came from McCowen. She said the genetic material collected from Worthington's right breast that matches McCowen's DNA could occur only once in 199.8 billion African-Americans.
A vaginal sample showed mostly Worthington's DNA, but also a potential so-called ''minor'' match for McCowen. That means that less of his DNA than Worthington's was found in the sample, but his was still a one-in-1.1 billion match.
Neither of those two swabs contained any DNA from Jeremy Frazier, who McCowen said fatally stabbed Worthington through the lung.
The trial continues Monday morning in Barnstable Superior Court. Closing arguments could begin as early as Thursday, according to Nickerson.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref30.html
Did You Know?
Topic: How do researchers trace mitochondrial DNA over centuries?
Bert Ely, a biologist at the University of South Carolina, explains.
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is passed from a mother to her children. Fathers cannot pass on their mtDNA, only the extra genetic information on their Y chromosome. Because mtDNA only comes from the mother, it does not change very much, if at all, from generation to generation. Mutations do occur, but not very often--less frequently than once per 100 people. Therefore, a person's mtDNA is probably identical to that of his or her direct maternal ancestor a dozen generations ago, and this fact can be used to connect people across decades. For example, if a particular type of mtDNA was found primarily in Africa, then we could conclude that people from elsewhere in the world who had that type of mtDNA had a maternal ancestor from Africa.
Unlike most of our DNA, mitochondrial DNA is not found in our chromosomes or even in the nucleus (the central enclosure that contains all of the chromosomes) of our cells. Mitochondria are small membrane-bound structures in the cytoplasm of our cells. They are present in all plant and animal cells and are responsible for generating most of the energy needed for cell function. Each mitochondrion contains its own DNA and its own protein-synthesizing machinery. They reproduce by splitting in two after they make a second copy of the DNA. In humans, the mtDNA is in the form of a circle that contains approximately 16,500 nucleotide base pairs of DNA. (DNA molecules consist of two paired strands, and each strand is a long chain of four types of nucleotides, designated A, G, C and T.) In contrast, the DNA in the nucleus is divided into 46 linear chromosomes (23 from each of our parents) that have an average length of more than 200 million base pairs. Each person's mitochondria come from the cytoplasm of the mother's egg. The father's sperm cells also contain mitochondria, but they are not inherited by his offspring.
Before people started to travel around the world, the rare changes that occurred in mtDNA over time resulted in unique types of mtDNA on every continent. Therefore, most contemporary mtDNAs can be assigned to a continent of origin based on the nucleotide sequence of the most variable region (HvrI) of the mtDNA. The HvrI region is about 400 base pairs in length and is the region where the mitochondria start making a new copy of their DNA. It is the region of the DNA molecule where mutations (changes) are most likely to occur. When a scientist determines the order of the four nucleotides in this region, they find a record of all of the mutations that have occurred over time as the mtDNA was passed from mother to daughter from generation to generation. These accumulated mutations are the basis for the unique types of mtDNA found on each continent.
Within continents, regional mtDNA variation can be observed as well. When a woman's mtDNA contains a new mutation, her descendants are likely to live near her. Therefore, a local area where she lived will be the only place in the world where this particular type of mtDNA is found. However, whenever people moved from one place to another they took their mtDNA with them. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, there have been extensive movements of people over time. As such, a recent study has shown that approximately half of all African mtDNAs are shared among people from multiple countries in Africa. If an African-American has one of these shared mtDNAs, it is not possible to determine which country was the original home of the maternal ancestor who came to the U.S.
A second problem is that many African-Americans have a particular type of mtDNA that is clearly African in origin, but has not yet been observed among the African mtDNAs that have been analyzed. This situation occurs because there is an incredible amount of genetic diversity among Africans and African mtDNAs have not been studied extensively. In fact, the mtDNAs from many African ethnic groups have not been analyzed at all. Additional studies will help with this situation. However, if a particular mtDNA is rare enough to be found in only a small region of Africa, there is a good chance it will be difficult for researchers to find it. Some people suggest comparing these rare mtDNAs to similar mtDNAs that have already been found in Africa. However, when these comparisons are made, the rare mtDNA is usually similar to one of the common mtDNAs that are found in many countries. Therefore, it is not likely that a particular person's mtDNA can be assigned to a particular country of origin. This conclusion is true not only for African mtDNAs, but also mtDNAs from every other continent as well.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_31_nov_06/vol31_ref31.html
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