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Please see our “Did You Know?” section toward the end of this issue.
The DNA Informant Volume 48, July 17, 2007 Please see our “Did You Know?” section toward the end of this issue. Topic: DNA sequencing might become less expensive In the news, “the international police force Interpol this week said it had successfully tested an electronic messaging network that will let national forensic laboratories across the globe exchange DNA information.” “Using I-24/7, National Central Bureaus (NCBs) can search and cross-check data in a matter of seconds, with direct access to databases containing information on suspected terrorists, wanted persons, fingerprints, DNA profiles, lost or stolen travel documents, stolen motor vehicles, stolen works of art, etc. These resources provide police with instant access to potentially important information, thereby facilitating criminal investigations, Interpol says.” More specific to the US, an independent review of the Jeffrey Descovik case – one many of us are familiar with or have at least heard of – will provide a blueprint for reducing wrongful convictions. “The independent review was commissioned by the D.A.’s office and prepared by two retired judges, a former district attorney, and a criminal defense attorney.” It highlights several structural errors, many of them common in wrongful confession cases. Following these stories we are including a number of new and ongoing cases involving the use of DNA evidence. New messaging network exchanges/tracks DNA data worldwide The international police force Interpol this week said it had successfully tested an electronic messaging network that will let national forensic laboratories across the globe exchange DNA information. Such data could help the FBI in the US and other G8 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) security organizations worldwide solve crimes and investigate terrorism. The successful live test was conducted during the last meeting of the G8 Lyon-Roma DNA Search Request Network Technical Working Group, held in June at the Laboratory Division of the FBI in Quantico, Virginia. During the test, Dr. Thomas F. Callaghan, director of the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), sent DNA information directly to his counterparts at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Ottawa, Canada, and the UK’s Forensic Science Service, which replied with the search results within minutes over Interpol’s I-24/7 network. The I-24/7 network, which connects authorized law enforcement communities in the organization’s 186 member countries, uses 3DES encryption over a virtual private network. According to Interpol all information exchanged via the I-24/7 system is encrypted and transmitted over the Internet through multiple security barriers to local National Central Bureaus (NCBs). Worldwide, 42 Interpol member countries operate national DNA databases, and 11 more are developing them, Interpol said in a release. Interpol maintains a database of DNA profiles accessible online to all member countries upon adoption of the charter governing its secure use. The database contains more than 69,000 DNA profiles submitted by 45 member countries and has recorded 143 transnational hits involving 13 different countries. The FBI's Combined DNA Index System includes more than 4.7 million DNA profiles. Using I-24/7, National Central Bureaus (NCBs) can search and cross-check data in a matter of seconds, with direct access to databases containing information on suspected terrorists, wanted persons, fingerprints, DNA profiles, lost or stolen travel documents, stolen motor vehicles, stolen works of art, etc. These resources provide police with instant access to potentially important information, thereby facilitating criminal investigations, Interpol says. The I-24/7 system also lets member countries access each others’ national databases using a business-to-business (B2B) connection. Member countries manage and maintain their own national criminal data. They also have the option to make it accessible to the international law enforcement community through I-24/7. While I-24/7 is installed in NCBs, Interpol wants member countries to extend connections to national law enforcement entities such as border police, customs and immigration. The US NCB is this year pursing an ambitious plan to make Interpol criminal information available to all U.S. law enforcement entities by expanding its secure communications network. According to its report to congress, this access will be accomplished through a multi-faceted technical strategy: • Using Internet Based Virtual Private Networks for large Metropolitan police departments• Delivering secure web portals for smaller state and local liaison offices for individual access to Interpol systems and secure email to the USNCB.• Building interfaces to legacy mainframe systems, such as FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and the Department of Homeland Security’s Advance Passenger Information System (APIS). Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_48_jul_07/vol48_ref01.html Report provides blueprint for reducing wrongful convictions Jeffrey Deskovic was 16 when he confessed to raping and murdering a classmate. He spent the next 17 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Now, the District Attorney’s Office has released an independent review of the case that provides a blueprint of what goes wrong in false confession cases, and how to fix the problems. The case against Deskovic was built on his own statements, most of them unrecorded. No eyewitnesses or physical evidence connected him to the crime. Indeed, seminal fluid and hairs found in and on the victim’s body “definitely excluded” him. Over the years, Deskovic exhausted all of his state and federal appeals. But he did not give up trying to prove his innocence. Finally, the Innocence Project took his case. The DNA found on the victim was matched to a man serving life for another murder. That man subsequently confessed and pleaded guilty. Deskovic was released last November. The independent review was commissioned by the D.A.’s office and prepared by two retired judges, a former district attorney, and a criminal defense attorney. It highlights the following structural errors, many of them common in wrongful confession cases: Over-reliance on offender “profiling”: Police obtained an offender “profile” that proved inaccurate in almost every way, but which fit Deskovic. Tunnel vision: Partly because of the profile, police and prosecutors focused unduly on Deskovic. Taking advantage of his youth, naivete, and psychological vulnerabilitites, they hammered at the 16-year-old until he confessed. As is common in these types of cases, they failed to adequately investigate other theories of the crime or other potential suspects. Failure to record statements: Police only selectively recorded the series of statements that they took from Deskovic over a period of days. In one of several interviews, they recorded only 30 minutes out of four hours. On the day he confessed, nothing was recorded. Prosecutors told the jury that Deskovic knew details of the crime that only the killer could know. Given his innocence, it is likely that police – either deliberately or inadvertently – communicated that information to him during the questioning. Downplaying of physical evidence: Police ignored the fact that no physical evidence tied Deskovic to the crime. At trial, the prosecutor presented “strained and shifting theories” to explain away the DNA evidence. Defense failures: The defense failed to present evidence about false confessions, such as why someone might confess due to their psychological vulnerabilities, or the rates of such confessions. The defense also did not adequately confront the lack of scientific evidence against their client, which should have been the “centerpiece” of their case. The task force strongly recommended that police videotape the entirety of all interrogations in felony cases. In addition, they recommended honoring defendants’ post-conviction requests for DNA matching. It was not until a new chief prosecutor was appointed in Westchester County that Deskovic’s repeated requests were finally granted, leading to his exoneration. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_48_jul_07/vol48_ref02.html New and ongoing cases involving the use of DNA evidence include: North Carolina - The North Carolina State Bar on Thursday issued a formal order disbarring former district attorney Mike Nifong for his handling of the now-discredited Duke lacrosse rape case. Nifong must surrender his law license to the bar no later than 30 days from when he is served with the order. He also must pay costs associated with his June ethics trial. A disciplinary hearing committee decided to disbar Nifong after finding he had committed at least two dozen violations of the state's rules of professional conduct. The violations included lying to the court and withholding DNA evidence that showed genetic material from several males - though none from a Duke lacrosse player - had been found on the accuser. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_48_jul_07/vol48_ref03.html Connecticut - DNA tests show with 99 percent certainty, prosecutors say, that the pastor of a storefront church in Hartford is the father of a baby delivered last year by a 12-year-old girl in his congregation.
New Jersey - Byron Halsey, who narrowly escaped the death penalty when he was convicted in 1988 of the brutal sexual assault and murders of two young children in New Jersey, was fully exonerated earlier this week based on DNA evidence that proves his innocence. Halsey’s conviction was vacated on May 15, and at a hearing Monday the Union County District Attorney’s Office dismissed pending indictments against Halsey because he is innocent. Halsey is the 205th person nationwide – and the fifth in New Jersey – exonerated based on DNA evidence, according to the Innocence Project, which represents Halsey. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_48_jul_07/vol48_ref05.html New Jersey - City police officers were able to make an arrest Friday in connection with a burglary and theft using DNA from a cigarette and some help from the state police's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Police responded to an apartment on East Almond Street seven months ago where the victim reported that someone apparently broke in through his bedroom window and stole more than $600 in electronics and clothes. Among the items taken were a Sony PlayStation game console, a Sony PSP portable game unit, a pair of sneakers and three baseball hats. At the scene, officers noticed a freshly lit cigarette that had made a burn mark on top of the dresser in the bedroom. The cigarette was sent to state police for DNA analysis. On July 1, the city police department was notified that a CODIS match was made from the DNA left on the cigarette. Carlos "Flaco" Castrero, 39, of South Sixth Street was named as the suspect. Five days later, Castrero was picked up by Detective Chris Rodriguez while he was walking down the Boulevard toward Almond Street. "We use DNA evidence and send it over to state police whenever anything we can use is left behind," said Lt. Thomas Ulrich of Vineland Police Department. "Any blood or bodily fluid; used soda cans or utensils can also be used," he said. Though he denied any involvement in the incident, Castrero was arrested and charged with burglary and theft. He was lodged in Cumberland County Jail on $25,000 bail. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_48_jul_07/vol48_ref06.html Michigan - With tears in her eyes, Sue Burns recalled the last time she heard her sister get ready for her morning classes at Eastern Michigan University, on May 23, 1983. But Laura Jean McBride, 26, failed to return to the apartment the sisters shared on Green Road that afternoon. Burns reported her missing the next morning, and by afternoon, she learned McBride had been stabbed to death. Twenty-four years later, thanks to DNA evidence, a suspect was ordered to stand trial in McBride's death at the conclusion of a preliminary hearing Tuesday. Jimmy Eric Green, 49, is accused of raping and repeatedly stabbing McBride that morning in Peninsular Park, near the Huron River. Prosecutors presented evidence that Green's DNA matched the DNA collected in a rape kit after McBride's death. But no other evidence was outlined in court tying Green to the slaying of McBride, a U.S. Air Force veteran. Burns was one of five witnesses to testify before 14-A District Judge Kirk Tabbey during the hearing. McBride's body was found by fishermen in Peninsular Park, with 23 stab wounds and signs of sexual assault. "The police came that afternoon and said they found a body, and they were 95 percent sure it was my sister,'' said Burns, who was 19 at the time. Green faces charges of open murder, first-degree murder and first-degree criminal sexual conduct. He is already serving a life sentence for first-degree criminal sexual conduct in an unrelated case. Ypsilanti Police Officer Robert Peto, who was assigned the case in 2001, said Green was never a suspect in the original investigation into McBride's death. When lab tests on seminal fluid matched Green's sample in a national database in 2003, police began building their case against him, Peto said. Heather Vitta, a state police crime laboratory forensic scientist, said the profile from the samples unmistakably matched Green. Green's court-appointed defense attorney, Gina Jacobs, argued that prosecutors had limited evidence to tie Green to the murder. She said the DNA evidence may have been the result of consensual sex. Burns earlier testified her sister was not in a relationship at the time of her death. "So far we've heard no proof he killed her or even that he was in Ypsilanti (at the time),'' Jacobs said. But Tabbey said there was sufficient evidence for Green to stand trial and set a pretrial hearing for Aug. 28. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_48_jul_07/vol48_ref07.html New York - A man who was convicted with the help of DNA evidence of killing two women more than a decade ago was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison Tuesday. California - A year-old rape case that rocked the small Valley city of Reedley has finally been solved. Reedley police announced Monday they have identified the man who raped a ten-year old girl last July. News that the Reedley rapist has been caught has been received with relief and shock; relief the man is no longer a threat, but shock, because he lived right here on this street just doors away from where he attacked the little girl. After exhausting all leads in the case, Reedley police got lucky. They discovered DNA evidence collected at the crime scene last July matched the DNA of a man already in prison, 23-year old Rene Romero Arroyo. Sgt. Todd Lowery, Reedley P.D. says, "We're just happy that we were able to get lucky and get a DNA match and get this guy off the streets." As it turns out, Arroyo is already in prison on statutory rape and child molestation charges after having sex with a 12 year old in Reedley last fall. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_48_jul_07/vol48_ref09.html New York - DNA evidence left at the scene of a burglary in Chenango County has lead to the arrest of a Pennsylvania man. Shawn Davis, 26, is charged in connection with last year's burglary of a seasonal home in the Town of Columbus. According to the Chenango County Sheriff's Office, police compared DNA from blood found at the scene to a sample of Davis' DNA and concluded that both samples matched. Davis now faces a felony charge of third-degree burglary, while police continue to investigate similar burglaries in the area. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_48_jul_07/vol48_ref10.html Florida - Two teenagers were accused of gang-raping a woman, forcing her 12-year-old son to join in the attack and beating him and pouring cleaning solution into his eyes. Authorities allege Avion Lawson, 14, and Nathan Walker, 16, were among about 10 masked suspects who forced their way into the 35-year-old woman's apartment June 18. The two were being held without bail Friday on suspicion of armed sexual battery by multiple perpetrators, sexual performance by a child, armed home invasion and aggravated battery. Both were arrested this week, but formal charges had not been filed. Authorities said the two would be charged as adults. White said more arrests were expected. DNA evidence in a condom found in the victims' home linked Lawson to the crime, police said. Investigators also said they found a palm print belonging to Walker at the scene. The victims have been released from the hospital, White said. Prosecutors have 21 days from the time a suspect is arrested to formally file charges. Lawson was arrested Tuesday and Walker on Thursday. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_48_jul_07/vol48_ref11.html Louisiana - Lafayette police arrested a repeat offender Thursday after the Acadiana Crime Lab allegedly matched his DNA to two separate burglaries dating back to 2003 and 2004. Police arrested Michael E. Moore, 52, of Lafayette for a simple burglary of an automobile in October 2003 and for a simple burglary of a business in February 2004. Cpl. Paul Mouton, spokesman for the Lafayette Police Department, said Moore allegedly burglarized Chris' PoBoys on Jefferson Street and then a vehicle on West Grant Street. Mouton said Acadiana Crime Lab allegedly matched his DNA after entering it into the FBI's Combined DNA Index System, commonly referred to as CODIS. According to court records, Moore has been arrested at least 13 times for crimes that included forgery, burglary, theft, distribution of cocaine, car theft and robbery. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_48_jul_07/vol48_ref12.html California - For 13 years, police detectives suspected that two cousins were responsible for Placentia's No. 1 murder mystery, the slashing death of a promising Cal State Fullerton student. Only DNA evidence that was deemed insufficient had linked Sam Lopez to the case until last month, when additional forensic testing was completed on evidence that also advanced the case against Xavier Lopez, the district attorney's office said. Authorities declined to give further details. Texas - DNA evidence provided the alleged link between a former Montana man and the murder of a 71-year-old registered sex offender last fall in Copperas Cove. Stephan Dean Hogankamp was charged late last month with Capital Murder in the Oct. 1, 2006 death of Kenneth Eugene Smith, 71, whose body was found in the bedroom of his burning home in Copperas Cove. Justice of the Peace Larry McDonald set bond at $1 million on the new complaint. Hogankamp remains jailed. Investigators determined Smith died of blunt force injury, but the case turned cold after a subsequent search and reward failed to turn up any suspects. Eight months later, forensic scientists at the Montana state crime lab in Missoula found a DNA match for the arson and homicide. Smith was a registered sex offender as a result of an incident in the early 1990s involving a 20-year-old man, according to the Department of Public Safety Web site.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_48_jul_07/vol48_ref14.html
New York - Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has issued an "absolute pardon" to a man who spent nearly a decade on death row and came within nine days of being executed for a murder he did not commit. The pardon proclaims Earl Washington Jr.'s innocence in the June 1982 rape and murder of Rebecca Lynn Williams, a 19-year-old mother of three. Washington, who is mildly retarded, falsely confessed and then recanted. Last year, a federal jury found that a now-deceased investigator fed him details of the crime to produce the confession. In 2000, DNA testing implicated a convicted rapist, Kenneth Maurice Tinsley, who pleaded guilty in April to killing Williams. Gov. Jim Gilmore had pardoned Washington in 2002, but that pardon did not mean he was innocent, only that a jury would not have convicted him in light of the DNA evidence. "It is now evident that Mr. Washington was and is innocent of the crimes against Mrs. Williams," Kaine wrote in the pardon, issued Tuesday. "I have decided it is just and appropriate to grant this revised absolute pardon that reflects Mr. Washington's innocence." Washington, 47, who has married since his release and is a maintenance worker in Virginia Beach, settled his lawsuit against the state for $1.9 million. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_48_jul_07/vol48_ref15.html Florida - More than 20 years after a pregnant woman was found strangled on a roadway, a high school classmate who served time for killing another woman has been charged with her murder. Gary Troutman was ordered held without bail in connection with the March 1986 death of Angela Savage, the Broward County sheriff’s office said. Savage, 24, was last seen buying cigarettes at a neighborhood store with her infant son in tow. Witnesses said they saw a man approach her as she walked home. The infant was found safe the next morning on the porch of a family friend’s home, and Savage’s body was found sprawled on a road. The sheriff’s office said Thursday that DNA samples taken from Troutman linked him to Savage. Officials also said that Savage had been raped, which her brother, Wayne Adams, said he learned only upon Troutman’s arrest. Troutman, 45, recently served nine years in prison for the murder of a pregnant teen in February 1986 — six weeks before Savage was killed. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_48_jul_07/vol48_ref16.html
Wisconsin - Pieces of a disturbing puzzle keep Dean Albers questioning why three babies have been discovered dead in the waters his deputies patrol. "It's not something you want to be known for," the Goodhue County (Minn.) sheriff said in an interview Tuesday Albers hopes DNA results made public this week will keep the public questioning right along with him. Released Tuesday, DNA analysis from a private Florida lab suggests a high likelihood the same woman mothered two newborn children dumped into the Mississippi River approximately four years apart, authorities said. A third baby found this year was not related to the first two. "This is not a desperate act committed by a desperate person," Albers said. "This is cold-blooded murder, not once but twice." DNA results also suggest a more than 90 percent chance parents of the first two babies are Caucasian and as much as a 70 percent chance the third child is American Indian. O'Malley said dozens of women have agreed to DNA testing over the years. In the past month, he said, nine DNA tests have come back as a negative match. Two more women are waiting to be tested. O'Malley said the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the sheriff's department will continue investigating all three cases. Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_48_jul_07/vol48_ref17.html
Texas - Nearly 25 years after a man was stabbed to death in his southwest Houston apartment, DNA evidence has linked an incarcerated man to the crime. Carl Sterling Ward, 47, was charged Monday with the 1982 stabbing death of Nelson Guevara, 25. Ward — currently in the McConnell Unit in Beeville serving time on an unrelated murder charge — was identified as the suspect by a DNA match through the CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) after Houston police submitted evidence from the 1982 scene, the Houston Police Department said. Guevara was found stabbed to death in his apartment Dec. 9, 1982, in the 4500 block of Cosby by his roommate, who returned to the apartment around 2:25 p.m. The victim's hands were tied with a blue sock and his feet were bound with a sheet and an alarm clock cord. The clock was stopped at 12:55 p.m. — the time now-retired homicide Sgt. Jerry Novak said he believed the killing occurred. A small color television and a stereo component were missing from the apartment. So was the large butcher knife that Guevara had used earlier to cut meat, court documents show. Novak also noted shards of a large, black ceramic cat around the man's body that he believed shattered after being used to hit Guevara over the head. Blood evidence was collected from the floor near the front door and the wall in the living room. No fingerprints were found on the ceramic cat. In early 2006, HPD homicide officer Keith Swatzel submitted the blood evidence to CODIS, a national DNA computer system that compares forensic samples to profiles of felons. Swatzel and homicide Sgt. Mike Peters traveled to Beeville to obtain a buccal DNA swab and to interview Ward, who denied any involvement in the slaying. Ward, however, admitted to living at his mother's home — a short distance away from the apartment, where the killing occurred. According to court documents, the "frequency of the profile from an unrelated individual chosen at random from the population at large is less than 1 in 14 trillion." Ward was scheduled to be paroled Nov. 1, 2009, on the previous murder charge.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_48_jul_07/vol48_ref18.html
Did You Know? Topic: DNA sequencing might become less expensive
EVANSTON, Ill., July 2 (UPI) -- U.S. Nobel Laureate James Watson, co-discoverer of DNA, recently became the first person to have his own genome mapped -- and it cost $1 million. That price makes such a procedure out of the reach of most people. But the National Institutes of Health would like to bring the price down to $1,000 by the year 2014. One promising method for speeding DNA sequencing times, and thus reducing its cost, is nanopore sequencing, in which DNA moves through a tiny hole, much like thread going through a needle. The technique can detect individual DNA molecules, but the DNA passes through so quickly it's impossible to determine the sequence. Using a theory based on classical hydrodynamics, a Northwestern University researcher now has explained the nature of the resistive force that determines the speed of the DNA as it moves through the nanopore, which is just five to 10 nanometers wide. That understanding could help scientists figure out how to slow the DNA enough to make it readable and usable. Associate Professor Sandip Ghosal and colleagues detailed their research in the June 8 issue of the journal Physical Review Letters.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_48_jul_07/vol48_ref19.html
Events and conferences for 2007 that may of interest to you include:
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
18th International Symposium on Human Identification - October 1-4, 2007 Renaissance Hollywood Hotel - Hollywood, California Web site: www.promega.com/geneticsymp18/ 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
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