Sloppy DNA Work Creates Myth of Phantom Serial Killer

Missed chance on DNA, staked out wrong house,

(NEWSER) - The alleged serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper could have been stopped two years earlier if the police had collected his DNA. Lonnie David Franklin should have been added to a DNA database under a 2004 law called Proposition 69, finds the LA Times . He wasn't—apparently because it took the cops too long to get organized. "If only,” laments the mother of one of the victims. “Her life could have been possibly saved.” More»

Mitochondrial DNA found to vary widely within individuals

(NEWSER) - A DNA-matching technique used in forensics since the mid-1990s is now in question, according to new research. DNA found in cell structures called mitochondria varies greatly between samples from different tissues from the same individual, researchers found, meaning that forensic units may be mistaken when they exclude suspects because a mitochondrial sample from hair, for example, doesn't match mitochondrial DNA in their blood. More»

(NEWSER) - Think DNA evidence is foolproof? In fact, it's so easy to fabricate that "any biology undergrad" could engineer a crime scene, claim scientists in Israel. Raising troubling implications for a legal system that treats DNA as a gold standard, the scientists have demonstrated that DNA samples are vulnerable to both intentional tampering and inadvertent forensic lab contamination, the New York Times reports. More»

Forensic phenotyping works, but is it ethical?

(NEWSER) - The old-fashioned police sketch could soon be obsolete, the Wall Street Journal reports, thanks to DNA forensic phenotyping, an increasingly popular technique that uses crime-scene DNA to describe a suspect. So far, labs can only determine details such as ethnicity and physical traits, but that alone has helped in some cases, and scientists are working to push the technique further. More»

Samples to be required from convicts of all crimes

(NEWSER) - New York is poised to become the first state in the nation to require people convicted of any crime, no matter how minor, to provide DNA samples for a database. The state's lawmakers are putting the finishing touches on the measure, which would double the size of New York's DNA database, reports the New York Times . Supporters—including all 62 of the state's district attorneys—say the move will catch more violent offenders and exonerate more innocent people. More»