DNA Fingerprinting
DNA evidence is extremely helpful in criminal trials not only because it can determine the guilt of a suspect, but also because it can keep innocent people from going to jail. The suspect must leave a sample of their DNA at the crime scene in order for testing to occur, but DNA can be found in the form of many things such as semen, blood, hair, saliva, or skin scrapings. According to Newsweek, "thousands of people have been convicted by DNA's nearly miraculous ability to search out suspects across space and time... hundreds of innocent people have also been freed, often after years behind bars, sometimes just short of the death chamber" Though some may think it is a waste of time to go back and attempt to release convicts from prison after they have been in jail for such a long time, but since DNA testing had proven to be quite a successful method of doing this, it could help in many ways. First of all, if a person is not guilty of a crime they are in prison for committing, they have every right to attempt to prove their innocence. A great advantage to releasing these innocent people from prison is that they allow for more room in prisons for those who are actually guilty of the crimes. Another reason people may object to DNA
The future should be prepared for the ever-changing technology of DNA testing and welcome it warmly. Using more probes and testing more sites are helping keep the mismatches out of the lab. testing in the courtroom is that the tests require the suspect to provide a sample of his own DNA. As well as placing a suspect at a crime scene, DNA tests can also be performed if there is no suspect. The only problem with this is that sometimes, suspects refuse to donate their DNA for testing. Because of DNA testing we can now take samples from the victim and attempt to match the results with those of the suspect. "By the summer of 1999, the 99 labs using CODIS had made 218 forensic hits. In order for the DNA test to be admissible in court, the probability of a match must be very low to keep from accidentally placing a person at the crime scene when he or she was actually not. Though many people believe this to be true, in all actuality each person's DNA typing pattern is different and virtually unique. In the future it may get so detailed that we will be able to recognize actual features and ethnicity from DNA combinations; this is why the term "DNA fingerprinting" is not the most accurate way to describe the technique. It is helpful and has helped in many cases that would have otherwise gone unsolved. In cases of incest, DNA could be so alike because of heredity that the results may be hard to distinguish between the victim and rapist. As a result of these CODIS hits, the participating laboratories aided 578 investigations. DNA from the crime scene is collected, and the results are run through a series of indexes known as the CODIS system.
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Petersburg FL,
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Acceptance Essays
