Please see our “Did You Know?” section toward the end of this issue.
Topic: PCR on a chip
In the news, the Tennessee state Senate passed a bill to require anyone arrested for a violent crime to provide a DNA sample. And in Connecticut state lawmakers are hoping to pass a law that would remove the current 20-year statute of limitations on certain sexual assault offenses, in cases where a suspect has been identified through DNA evidence.
Following these stories we are including a number of new and ongoing cases involving the use of DNA evidence.
DNA Statewide Database
The Tennessee state Senate passed a bill to require anyone arrested for a violent crime to give a D-N-A sample that would be placed in a statewide database.
The measure was sponsored by Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey of Blountville in response to the unsolved murder of Johnia Berry in December 2004. Berry was stabbed to death only 12 days before she was to receive a degree with honors from East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. She was 21. She was attacked by a knife-wielding man in her Knoxville apartment.
Berry's parents attended the Senate session and pressed Ramsey's voting button to help unanimously pass the bill. The companion measure is scheduled for consideration in the budget subcommittee of the House Finance Committee on Wednesday.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_43_may_07/vol43_ref02.html
Time Limits Targeted In Sex Assault Cases
Deep inside the locked databases of the state forensic lab are six samples of DNA that link individuals to sex crimes committed in Connecticut.
But law enforcement officials say they cannot prosecute any of those individuals because the statute of limitations has expired in each of the cases.
It's a frustrating part of a crime investigator's job and one that some state lawmakers are hoping to address by passing a law that would remove the current 20-year statute of limitations on certain sexual assault offenses, in cases where a suspect has been identified through DNA evidence.
The law, which would take effect July 1, unanimously passed the judiciary committee earlier this month and is on the House of Representatives' calendar for a possible vote.
If there is a public face to the issue, it belongs to Donna Palomba, a Waterbury woman who was violently assaulted by a masked intruder who entered her home in 1993. The assailant cut her phone lines, covered her head with a pillowcase and raped her while her children slept.
At the time of the attack, the statute of limitations was five years.
Police didn't catch up to the man they believed attacked Palomba until 11 years later, when John Regan voluntarily gave authorities a DNA sample after being charged with the attempted sexual assault of a 21-year-old co-worker.
Authorities ran Regan's sample through their DNA database and found a perfect match to Palomba's case. But because the then 5-year statute of limitations had expired, authorities were only able to charge Regan with kidnapping.
Regan, who is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence in New York for attempting to abduct a 17-year-old girl in Saratoga County in 2005, was later sentenced to a 15-year concurrent prison sentence in Connecticut for Palomba's kidnapping and the attempted assault of his co-worker. He'll have to serve the final three years in Connecticut
"This is not enough," Palomba said during recent testimony at the state Capitol in support of the legislation. "Regan should be charged with the crime he committed in my case, which is first-degree sexual assault. There is DNA evidence and he was armed with a gun and a knife. He is dangerous and calculating and it has been proven he is a repeat offender. I fear for my life when he gets out and believe he will attack other innocent victims."
During her testimony in Hartford several weeks ago, Palomba hid her identity and was described only as "Jane Doe." She has since decided to reveal herself and has launched a national initiative called "Jane Doe No More" to help raise awareness about sexual assault and victims' rights. Palomba reveals her identity on her organization's website.
She could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Currently, only crimes such as capital felony and Class A felonies such as arson, murder and first-degree escape have no statute of limitations. The proposed bill would extend that list to include first-degree sexual assault, aggravated first-degree sexual assault, sexual assault in a spousal or cohabitating relationship, second-degree sexual assault, third-degree sexual assault, and third-degree sexual assault with a firearm.
Because of the way the proposal is written and other legal limitations, none of the six confirmed DNA matches could be prosecuted if the new law were to pass, said state Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven and co-chairman of the judiciary committee. The existing statute of limitations in all those cases had expired at the time the match was made.
Authorities are hoping to find a match soon in a New Haven case in which DNA evidence obtained in a sexual assault last year has been linked to 13 other sexual assaults in Virginia and Maryland. Investigators know they have a serial rapist at large, but they haven't been able to match the evidence to a person, said Michael Burke, who oversees the state forensic lab's DNA database. No new DNA evidence has been identified since the New Haven case, although authorities have no idea if the suspect is still in the area.
Lt. David Rice, director of the state forensic lab in Meriden, said Thursday he did not know whether any of the individuals for whom authorities have a DNA match are currently free or incarcerated for other crimes.
It was unclear Thursday whether the proposed bill will pass in the House and Senate before the June 6 deadline.
Lawlor and other legislators are considering attaching an amendment to the bill that also would extend the statute of limitations for lawsuits in child molestation cases from 30 to 40 years, a measure proposed in direct response to recent abuse allegations involving Roman Catholic priests.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_43_may_07/vol43_ref04.html
New and ongoing cases involving the use of DNA evidence include:
Washington - State Supreme Court judges issued a common sense opinion in an important DNA case. By a 7-2 vote, the justices said that collection of DNA samples from felons is constitutional. The jurists rejected the opponent's argument that taking DNA samples from convicts violates their privacy rights."
"The state already collects from convicted persons identifying information such as photographs and fingerprints; a DNA sample is simple another piece of identifying information," said Justice Charles Johnson, writing for the majority that included Chief Justice Gerry Alexander and Justices Barbara Madsen and James Johnson. Justices Tom Chambers, Susan Owens and Bobbe Bridge issued concurring opinions. Justices Richard Sanders and Mary Fairhurst dissented.
Collection of DNA samples from convicted felons is critically important because it can be used to link inmates to other crimes. The DNA database is a valuable law enforcement tool.
In his majority opinion, Justice Charles Johnson said convicts have a lesser expectation of privacy than the general population, as their identities and physical characteristics have already become part of the public record - in police reports, for example.
It was a solid legal decision backed by common sense.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_43_may_07/vol43_ref03.html
Oregon - Detectives said today that DNA testing has tied a 27-year-old man accused of fatally beating and dumping a woman's body in Northeast Portland last month to an unsolved killing 12 1/2 years ago of a high school sophomore who was shot in the head and left half-naked on the grounds of an elementary school outside of Oakland, Calif.
DNA evidence linked Imani Charles Williams to the killing of 15-year-old girl Evelyna LeBlanc, who was sexually assaulted, shot in the head and left bleeding on the grade school grounds in San Leandro, Calif., on Nov. 5, 1994.
The girl's mother, Arlene LeBlanc-Gibson, said today that she never gave up hope that police would catch a suspect in her daughter's killing.
Williams, who was 14 and attending a Catholic high school in Oakland at the time of the California killing, was arrested in Portland on April 20 in the killing of Sharvettia Monique Brown. Brown, 37, died April 14 of blunt force trauma and was found in the 1800 block of Northeast Lombard Street about 4:17 a.m.
California authorities now intend to charge Williams in LeBlanc's killing. When they heard of the DNA match, news spread quickly among the many San Leandro investigators who had handled the LeBlanc case over the years.
Months before Brown's killing, Portland detectives were investigating links through DNA evidence between a Feb. 4, 2006, residential burglary on Northeast Bryant Street, a March 17, 2006, stabbing in the head of a woman on a Northeast Portland street, and the November 1994 killing of LeBlanc in California.
In January, Portland homicide Detective Molly Daul was alerted that DNA linked the three crimes together and was assigned to investigate the Portland cases to come up with suspect information.
Meanwhile, two other Portland homicide detectives were called out on April 14 to Brown's body. At 4:07 a.m., a person reported hearing screaming and saw a man beating a woman in the 1000 block of Northeast Stafford Street. Ten minutes later, Brown's body was found blocks away. Police recovered a stolen white Toyota pickup they suspect Brown was driving at the time of the fatal assault.
With witness help, homicide Detectives Jon Rhodes and Lynn Courtney working Brown's case came up with a possible suspect name. The partners consulted with Daul, who found similarities between Brown's brutal beating and the violent stabbing of the Portland woman last spring.
"Both attacks were 'overkill.' There was just an extreme amount of violence, and this guy's first name was unusual," Rhodes said.
Police found out that Williams had provided a DNA sample to the state for a prior felony conviction but the sample hadn't been analyzed or entered into the state's DNA database. Maul called the Oregon State crime lab and asked officials to "move his sample forward in the pool to be tested," Rhodes said.
Once it was tested, Williams' DNA profile matched the DNA evidence from the unsolved 1994 California homicide as well as Brown's killing. It also matched DNA evidence taken from a discarded cigarette butt from the February 2006 residential Portland burglary and a shoe left behind from the March 2006 assault of a Portland woman.
"He actually ran out of one of his shoes when he was running away from the scene, chased off by a witness who came out of a bar and saw the assault going on," said Overton of the San Leandro Police Department.
Appearing in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Tuesday, Williams pleaded not guilty to a nine-count indictment in Brown's killing from last month. He faces two counts of aggravated murder, plus charges of murder, kidnapping, first-degree robbery and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. He also was indicted on attempted murder and first-degree assault in the stabbing of a woman who survived the March 17, 2006, attack, and first-degree burglary for the February 2006 residential break-in.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_43_may_07/vol43_ref05.html
New Jersey - An already-incarcerated Montclair resident, facing charges of assault, kidnapping and weapons possession, has just been additionally charged with theft in connection with a West Caldwell burglary spree, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.
Forensic evidence from numerous homes and cars burglarized the night of Dec. 11 turned out to be a positive DNA match for Aaron Buie, 27, of Pine Street, who is presently in the Essex County Jail on the earlier charges, the prosecutor stated.
According to authorities, Buie had a dispute with his girlfriend at her apartment on Summit Street in East Orange on April 4.
Afterward, with the assistance of an unidentified accomplice, he bound and gagged the woman, possibly employing knives during the commission of the crime, said Paul M. Loriquet, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office. Eight days later, on April 12, police arrested Buie. His bail has been set at $800,000.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_43_may_07/vol43_ref06.html
North Carolina - A woman's emotional testimony detailing a sexual assault by a stranger five years ago in Wilmington could not have been more compelling for jurors to hear.
Yet the real star witness in a New Hanover County Superior Court trial that began this week is DNA, specifically the DNA of a man charged in connection with the crime.
The use of DNA to solve cold cases is on the rise as national and state databases of criminal offenders grow, authorities said. North Carolina is no exception.
Troy D. Simmons, 45, is charged with first-degree counts of sex offense, kidnapping and burglary. Simmons was in state prison serving time for an unrelated rape conviction from Onslow County when a random hit in the national DNA index system about two years ago linked him to the crime in New Hanover County.
Simmons' shaven head and other features bear a remarkable resemblance to a drawing made by a police artist after the assault, based on the victim's description. He maintains his innocence. But DNA material found on part of a condom wrapper left at the assault scene might be the prosecution's trump card.
Prosecution testimony in the trial continues today.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_43_may_07/vol43_ref07.html
California - Authorities say DNA evidence has helped them make an arrest in the 2005 murder of an elderly Kern County woman.
Joseph Rene Castillo, 20, who was serving time in Wasco State Prison for violating parole on a drug conviction, was arrested at the prison last week on suspicion of murder, robbery and burglary.
Castillo was arrested after authorities say he was linked to the murder of Elizabeth Gayle Cook, 74, who was stabbed to death in her Wasco home in July of 2005.
Authorities say DNA found at the crime scene matched Castillo's DNA in a database with the California Department of Justice
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_43_may_07/vol43_ref08.html
Alaska - The FBI's Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, was created as a tool for law enforcement throughout the country to use to identify criminals who may be in different states. It allows DNA to be used much like fingerprints, to solve crimes.
She had left her residence for classes at the UAA campus early on the morning of September 28, but never made it to class. Her body was found in McHugh Creek that afternoon. Authorities say she had been raped and severely beaten before she fell off of a cliff into the creek.
The rape and murder of 18-year-old Bonnie Craig rocked the Anchorage community 13 years ago. It's been so long since her death, Craig's mother says she almost lost hope of ever finding her daughter's killer.
The very nature of Alaska can make it hard for murders like Craig's to be solved.
"Alaska is a very transient state. So a lot of people move from the state on us--not only the suspects, but witnesses and families. And the older a case is, the more people forget," said Timothy Hunyor of the Trooper Cold Case Unit.
Now, thanks to DNA, authorities say 37-year-old Kenneth Dion committed the crime.
"The marrying of technology with forensic science really does help law enforcement solve cases that would have otherwise in the past gone unsolved," said F.B.I. spokesperson, Eric Gonzalez.
So why has it taken 13 years to solve the Bonnie Craig case? The answer is: money. The state crime lab is under-funded. Combine that with a lack of manpower, and you have a backlog of more than 1,000 DNA samples waiting to be entered in the CODIS DNA System.
"It is a high priority for us, but we do have other crime scenes going on. And with the urgency behind those, it kind of gets put on the back burner and we just get to it whenever. And hopefully it won't burn," said Megan Peters of the Alaska State Troopers.
While the process may have taken more than a decade, investigators and the community made sure Craig's mystery would one day be solved.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_43_may_07/vol43_ref09.html
California -DNA samples saved from Los Angeles rapes and killings between 1987 and 1998 have led to a man being convicted of 11 counts of serial murder.
A jury on Monday convicted former pizza deliveryman and crack cocaine dealer Chester Turner in connection with the deaths of 10 women, one who was pregnant with a viable 26-week-old fetus, The Los Angeles Times reported.
The women ranged in age from 21 to 45. Their strangled and battered bodies were found strewn around South Los Angeles over an 11-year period.
In 1995, David Jones, a part-time janitor described by a psychiatrist of having the mental capacity of an 8-year-old, was convicted of three killings and sentenced to 36 years to life in state prison.
In 2001, cold case Detective Cliff Shepard ordered DNA tests that exonerated Jones, who was released and paid $720,000 from the city. However, the DNA was a perfect match to Turner, who faces sentencing Wednesday.
The jury's only options are life sentences or death, the Times said.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_43_may_07/vol43_ref10.html
Louisiana - A convicted felon arrested after DNA linked him to a cold case in West Monroe pleaded guilty to armed robbery Monday.
State District Judge Carl Sharp then sentenced Harvey Jenkins, 29, to 50 years in prison without the benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.
Jenkins was arrested in July for a March 2004 assault on a female employee of Glenwood Regional Medical Center. The woman was stabbed in the chest and her purse was stolen in the hospital parking lot.
The case remained unsolved until Jenkins' DNA information was processed in preparation for his release from the Winn Correctional Center, where he was serving time on an unrelated charge.
Assistant District Attorney Stephen Sylvester gave the West Monroe Police Department credit for sticking with the case for so long.
"My hat goes off to the West Monroe Police Department," Sylvester said. "They did an excellent job seeing this thing until the end."
Jenkins had also been charged with aggravated second-degree battery, but that count was dropped as part of the plea.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_43_may_07/vol43_ref111.html
Iowa - DNA taken from the victim and scene of a November assault is a virtual match for accused attacker Jonathan Powell, a criminalist testified today.
Powell, 16, is on trial today for sexually assaulting a University of Iowa freshman in November.
Michael Schmit, a criminalist with the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation, testified that DNA from blood stains taken from the T-shirt and jeans of the victim are a virtual match to Powell’s DNA. Fewer than one out of 100 billion unrelated people would have the same profile, Schmit said.
Swabs taken from the victim’s fingernails showed two DNA profiles: The victim’s and one that is a 1 out of 51 million match for Powell’s.
The victim recounted that she went out for a walk shortly after midnight on Nov. 12. She was near the Voxman Music Building when she was attacked.
According to the victim’s testimony, Powell wrestled her to the ground and hit her in the head with his knee two times before sexually assaulting her. At one point, the attacker had the victim up on her feet and was dragging her along, and an older man and a drunken man actually passed them by.
The victim said that after the attack she was lucky for three things:
“To have my virginity, to have my body parts intact, and mostly, to be alive,” she said.
During the struggle, the victim bit the attacker’s left hand, drawing blood. University of Iowa Police Officer Elizabeth Ann Briezelaar testified this morning that she found blood drops on leaves and in the grass near the Voxman Building.
Six days after the attack, Briezelaar testified, she saw Powell doing yard work at a home on Park Road, which is where he lives and is near the UI Arts Campus where the Voxman Building is located.
Powell sat at a table in between his mother and his lawyer, staring down and writing during much of this morning’s testimony. The charges he faces in this trial are second-degree sexual assault and third-degree burglary. He faces other charges from alleged attacks on two female joggers on the UI campus in July and October of last year, but those charges are in abeyance for the time being, said Assistant County Attorney Beth Beglin, who is prosecuting the case.
Today’s trial is a bench trial, meaning the judge will decide guilt or innocence, not a jury. Judge Sylvia Lewis is hearing the case.
At any rate, Powell is being charged as a juvenile, which means that any penalties applied to him should he be found guilty will only be in effect until he is 18 years old.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_43_may_07/vol43_ref12.html
North Carolina - A suspect arrested this month in Georgia has been returned to Raleigh to face numerous felony charges.
James Bernard Henderson, 40, is charged with first degree rape, first degree sex offense, first degree burglary and first degree kidnapping. The charges stem from an attack that occurred more than seven years ago -- during the early hours of Sept. 7, 1999.
The victim, who was 28 at the time, was awakened and assaulted by an armed suspect who had entered her apartment. The suspect fled the scene after committing the crimes and had remained unidentified.
In March 2006, the victim's sexual assault evidence kit was submitted to the SBI as part of a statewide initiative to perform DNA testing on unsolved rape cases. On March 21, 2007, the Raleigh Police Department was notified that DNA present in the kit had been matched to Henderson.
RPD Special Victims Unit detectives, who had initiated a re-examination of the case before receiving the DNA match, conducted additional investigation and determined that Henderson was likely residing in Hephzibah, Ga. He was arrested there April 6 by U.S. marshals.
Henderson is in custody at the Wake County jail.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_43_may_07/vol43_ref13.html
Minnesota - A warrant has been issued for the arrest of a 25-year-old Rochester man facing a string of charges in connection with a home invasion in December.
Charles Antonio Gayles, no permanent address, is charged with attempted aggravated robbery in the first degree, two counts of first-degree burglary and one count of making terroristic threats.
Authorities linked Gayles to the crime through DNA in a hat found on the ground outside the residence where the incident occurred.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_43_may_07/vol43_ref14.html
Alabama - A brutal rape case that had gone cold for more than five years has been resolved using the latest technology to match prints and DNA.
A cold case unit formed in 2005 within the Alabama Bureau of Investigation is credited with bringing 29-year-old Redius Worthy to justice, said District Attorney Randall Houston.
Worthy, who admitted to the crime in court Thursday, was sentenced to 40 years in prison by Circuit Judge John Bush.
The night of June 10, 2000, a 26-year-old Chilton County woman was attacked in her home. She was raped repeatedly, sodomized and severely beaten, said Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Jordan.
The cold case unit works cases that can be solved by matching DNA, said ABI Cpl. Lynn Sutton, who chose the rape case as the first one the unit looked into.
"I never worked the case when it first happened," Sutton said. "Her evidence was in our locker, and I saw it every time I went in there. I felt like I knew her. One of the happiest days of my life was when I told her we had a name to tie to the evidence."
During the attack, the rapist left a print of his palm, soaked in the victim's blood, on a wall. State investigators used updated fingerprint systems to get a partial match to Worthy, who was serving a sentence for robbery out of Bibb County at Easterling Correctional Facility, court records state.
Palm prints usually aren't taken as part of the records in criminal investigations. Investigators had cut out the section of drywall at the victim's home that had Worthy's prints. ABI investigators got a court order to get a set of Worthy's palm prints and a sample of his DNA.
It was a perfect match, Jordan said.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_43_may_07/vol43_ref15.html
Texas - A convicted burglar who was scheduled to be released from a Florida prison next week is facing new accusations in Fort Worth that he raped and strangled a 23-year-old medical student almost 25 years ago.
Lucky Odom, who had previously been sentenced to five years' probation in Tarrant County for the 1981 rape of a Fort Worth woman, was identified as a suspect in the 1982 death of Kathryn Munroe after a database linked his DNA to evidence in the case, police said.
The link has brought some relief to Munroe's family but outrage to Odom's rape victim, who said the man shouldn't have been on the streets to harm another woman.
"He shouldn't have ever been released," the woman said in an interview with the Star-Telegram. "He should have been kept behind bars for years. No telling how many people he's probably hurt or killed."
The Star-Telegram typically does not identify accusers in sexual-assault cases.
Anyone who may have known Kathryn Munroe or Lucky Odom around the time of the 1982 slaying is asked to call Fort Worth police Detective Manny Reyes at 817-392-4307.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_43_may_07/vol43_ref16.html
Pennsylvania - Evidence collected from the body of a woman found dumped in a gravel parking lot last month led investigators to charge a man who lived near the victim.
Lawrence County authorities charged Gaylord Spell, 44, of New Castle, with homicide and abuse of a corpse in connection with 40-year-old Sueann Brest's death.
Her naked body was found March 1 in an abandoned lot near the Lawrence County vocational-technical school in Shenango Township, authorities said. The lack of blood in the parking lot indicates her body was dumped there after she was murdered elsewhere.
An autopsy revealed the mother of four had been bludgeoned with a hammer or tire iron and died of massive head injuries.
A national DNA database found blood and semen taken from Brest's body came from Spell, officials said.
Spell's DNA had been sampled because he had been convicted of assault in Virginia, District Attorney John Bongivengo said.
The day Brest's body was found, a passer-by about 25 miles away found bloody women's clothing along a road in Adams Township, Butler County, police said. A pair of size 12 men's slippers also was found near the clothes.
Also, a state trooper on March 7 found a sofa arm cover with blood on it along a road in Portersville, about 15 miles from where the body was found. Investigators said a search of Spell's house Friday found a sofa with the same pattern that matched the sofa arm cover.
Spell worked a few miles from where the bloodied clothing was found and told police he wore a size 12 shoe, authorities said.
Spell, however, denied knowing Brest, police said.
Spell was held in the Lawrence County Jail without bond. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_43_may_07/vol43_ref17.html
Michigan - A partially eaten cinnamon bun left in a stolen car led to the arrest and conviction of a Detroit man for a crime that occurred two years ago.
Norman O'Neil Wheeler, 40, was charged after a lengthy investigation by Eastpointe Detective Eric Keiser of the Macomb Auto Theft Squad. Wheeler was in prison on an unrelated car theft, according to Keiser and was arrested on the Eastpointe charge because experts at the Michigan State Police Crime Laboratory in Sterling Heights linked DNA from the cinnamon bun to Wheeler.
Wheeler pleaded guilty April 2 to unlawfully driving away an auto, police said. He is set to be sentenced May 22.
The incident began when Eastpointe officer Ed Lulko was dispatched to the Walgreen drugstore, 17755 Eight Mile Road, on Dec. 11, 2004, on a stolen car investigation. A witness told Lulko that she saw a man drive into the Walgreen lot in one car, break out the window of a second car and drive away.
"Officer Lulko found the partially eaten pastry in the car and sent it to the Michigan State Police crime laboratory with hopes that the DNA left on the roll could lead to the identity of the perpetrator," said Keiser.
Eastpointe Detective Lt. Leo Borowsky said that even though Wheeler is in prison, police decided to prosecute him to send a message to other car thieves.
"We've been fortunate catching car thieves because of the work of our detectives and assistance from MATS," Borowsky said.
Dennis Lippert, director of the crime laboratory, said every part of a person's body has DNA. He said newer techniques can amplify small amounts of DNA and yield a genetic profile.
Lippert said authorities put the DNA in an identifying system, which basically searches for a matching DNA.
Because he was a convicted criminal, Wheeler's DNA was on file and was matched with that found on the cinnamon bun.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_43_may_07/vol43_ref18.html
Chicago - DNA tests that exonerated Jerry Miller for a 1981 kidnapping and rape have implicated another man in the crime, prosecutors disclosed Monday.
That other man, Robert Weeks, has spent much of the past quarter-century behind bars, has since been convicted of another rape, is accused of two additional rapes and is in prison currently for assaulting police officers, according to prosecutors and Illinois Department of Corrections records.
Weeks, who turns 45 on Wednesday, will not be charged with the rape for which Miller was wrongfully convicted because the statute of limitations for that offense has expired, first Assistant State's Atty. Robert Milan said.
The disclosure that Weeks was an exact match for the DNA that cleared Miller, 48, came shortly after Miller was officially exonerated in Cook County Criminal Court.
To vigorous applause and whoops of joy from family members and friends, a grinning Miller emerged from the courtroom of Judge Diane Gordon Cannon after the judge, at the request of prosecutors and defense lawyers, dismissed Miller's 1982 rape conviction, citing DNA tests that show he was not guilty. Miller is the 27th DNA exoneration in Illinois and the 200th in the nation.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_43_may_07/vol43_ref19.html
Did You Know?
Topic: Mini DNA replicator could benefit world's poor
A pocket-sized device that runs on two AA batteries and copies DNA as accurately as expensive lab equipment has been developed by researchers in the US.
The device has no moving parts and costs just $10 to make. It runs polymerase chain reactions (PCRs), to generate billions of identical copies of a DNA strand, in as little as 20 minutes. This is much faster than the machines currently in use, which take several hours.
"I hope this will make PCR more available," says Victor Ugaz of Texas A&M University in Texas, US, whose group made the new device. He says the system could enable DNA-based tests to be carried out in the field or in developing countries, where large, expensive laboratory equipment is neither practical nor affordable.
Running a PCR requires treating DNA strands, along with chemical materials needed to make new DNA strands, at three different temperatures. The highest temperature (95°C) causes two strands of a DNA molecule to separate. The lowest temperature (60°C) makes DNA building blocks stick together. Then, holding the temperature in the middle (72°C), allows an enzyme to quickly assemble replica DNA strands.
Facsimile machine
To cycle through these temperatures, a conventional PCR machine heats and cools a large metal block holding multiple tubes containing samples of DNA and the material needed to make copies.
In the new device, created by graduate student Nitin Agrawal, a centimetre-wide loop of tubing wraps in a vertical ring around a set of three metal rods. The rods, together the size of an AA battery, are kept at three different temperatures. With this set-up, the parts of the tube closest to each block are heated differently.
This keeps the liquid flowing through the millimetre-wide tube, and so the DNA and building blocks cycle automatically through the three temperatures needed for PCR. "It's similar to how a lava lamp works," says Ugaz.
As the fluid is heated, it becomes less dense and more buoyant, so it flows upward. When the fluid cools in another part of the loop, it becomes denser and moves down. And because the device only heats the three small blocks of metal, it also runs off just two AA batteries.
Incomplete solution
"This is a significant advance in the proof of the concept," says biomedical engineer Samuel Sia of Columbia University in New York, US. "It shows you can use convection-driven flow to do PCR in a miniaturized format."
The device shows promise for a variety of tests, Sia says, including monitoring levels of HIV virus in a person's body or diagnosing tuberculosis. "There's nothing like this in developing countries," he explains. "There's a great need everywhere in the world for doing DNA- and RNA-based tests."
For the full potential of the device to be realised, however, Sia says that cheap and simple methods of preparing samples, by isolating DNA from cells, will be needed along with miniaturised DNA analysis equipment.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_43_may_07/vol43_ref20.html
Events and conferences for 2007 that may of interest to you include:
18th International Symposium on Human Identification - October 1-4, 2007
Renaissance Hollywood Hotel - Hollywood, California
Web site: www.promega.com/geneticsymp18/
AFDAA (Association of DNA Analysts and Administrators) Conference – August 2-3, 2007 – Austin, TX. Contact Joseph Warren 817-735-5107
Web site: www.AFDAA.org
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.
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