Tag Archives: DNA profiling

Tampering with witness’ testimony

Posted on August 7, 2011 by irina.tyumentseva

The movie about child molesters that we watched in class reminded me off another documentary I watched about wrongly convicted. (its in two parts, part 1 and part 2)

In Law and Psychology class we were looking at the Cotton Case where young woman was raped by guy who broke into her apartment. She identified one person, who after years in prison was released when DNA identification linked rape case to other prisoner. The victim met with the man she mistakenly put into prison, he forgave her and understood how she was made to believe that he was the one who raped her. They wrote the book and toured together. The book and tour was about how police can manipulate victim’s judgment. It can be done through the way questions are stated, or potential offenders positioned in a line-up. In that case it was through how the picture of the same man was shown to the victim in different sets of pictures.

This case, as well as cases of child molesters that we watched in class, shows how different factors can tamper with witness’ memory.  Victims in both cases were in doubt throughout the case trial and were convinced or made to testify false by police. But the Cotton case has another analogy with what we discussed in class, because the convict was eventually released on the base of DNA evidences. We had some discussions in class and on blog about the harm of storing DNA information on people. I personally posted a blog last week that argues against State’s storing of DNA samples from people who commit misdemeanor. The Cotton case may serve as an example of how DNA information help to free innocent people  from jail. It serves as a good example of an opposite side of the argument about the use of DNA in justice.

Posted in Assignment 3 | Tagged , , , | 18 Comments

DNA profiling in US

Posted on July 21, 2011 by irina.tyumentseva

On popular science and technology website Singularity Hub i found interesting article. It shows that as of July2011 13 states in US collect DNA samples from anyone who gets arrested. It highlightens the usefulness of this practice and even gives example of the case when murderer was found because police had his DNA after he was arrested for felony. Of course DNA profiling can serve many good causes, but the fact that it gets so widespread and used on virtually anyone, makes me personally, very uncomfortable.

Lets say you get arrested because you happened to be out late at night and crime was committed nearby. You will be released from police department within couple hours, but your DNA sample will be stored in their system. Of course, as a law obeying citizen you have nothing to worry about. That’s from the side of law enforcement agencies, but in the age of computer hacking there may be criminals who can use your precious information. If Wiki Leaks could access information from top secret government websites, where is guarantee that your DNA code won’t be stolen from police databases and used for anything from fraud to faking of your criminal records. Article hints on the problem by saying that widespread DNA screening practice “raises serious concerns about who has access to potentially incriminating DNA information stored in databases”.

Another thing with databases is that there may be mistakes. Article mentions that society and courts put a lot of weight on DNA identification. Therefore, given the level of trust that courts are putting into DNA identification, one may be convicted wrongfully because of the faulty entry in DNA police database.

Now whether the fact that so many states use DNA profiling on anyone who is arrested serves for public good or not is up to you to decide.

Posted in Assignment 1 | Tagged , | 16 Comments