DNA
The emergence of DNA testing has resulted in the exoneration of many people convicted of crimes. The ACLU (2011) has stated that 17 people on death row were exonerated as of September, 2011. A project in Virginia found 33 individuals convicted of sexual assaults who between 1973-1987 who were still incarcerated in 2012 and whose innocence was demonstrated by DNA testing (Michaels, 2012). DNA testing has proven effective at uncovering since instances of justice gone unserved, because of the unique nature of DNA testing.
Each person's DNA is unique, as a genetic fingerprint. This is the main value that DNA testing has in forensics. Often, before DNA testing was introduced, convictions could be made on the basis of anything from fabricated evidence to weak witnesses. There has always been a certain percentage of instances where innocent people were convicted, even in capital cases. DNA testing, however, has been used in recent years to right these injustices.
The ACLU (2011) notes that modern scientists can readily distinguish DNA, such that identifying a match between two DNA samples is possible. This is the case except in the instance of identical twins and bone marrow transplant recipients. DNA is found in every single cell of a person, so the sample taken from the victim or the crime scene can be enough to overturn a conviction, depending on the details of the sample and the details of the case. A sample from the convict is taken -- from...
The authors also argue that the lack of black political representations is not helping the cause and that the "three strikes you're out" rule is designed to punish repeat offenders and reward police officers and citizens who feel that blacks are inherently more criminal (Healey and O'Brien, 2007, pp. 207). When one segment of a society is labeled as "criminal," and even blacks begin to hate other blacks and
Capital Punishment & DNA DNA Evidence, Capital Punishment, & the Criminal Justice System Capital Punishment is an issue of great contention. There are many people who strongly favor the use of capital punishment; there are also a great number of people that are adamantly against the use of capital punishment. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) evidence has become a crucial factor in the criminal justice system and the issue of capital punishment. Since the
" Giannelli (2003) stresses that advantages and reliability of scientific and technical evidence depend on whether a scientific culture exists. For reliability of DNA and other scientific evidence, there have to be sufficient written protocols and "an empirical basis for the most basic procedures." (Giannelli, 2003) Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld, and Jim Dwyer (cited by Giannelli, 2003) conclude that their investigations revealed that a third of the criminal convictions of 62
DNA in Criminal Justice System DNA in the Criminal Justice System -- DNA as Evidence Justice and Science Sources of DNA at Crime Scene Evidence Collection DNA Evidence on Trial DNA Matching This paper addresses the use of DNA in criminal justice system. The research paper will cover the usage of DNA as evidence. The importance of DNA in any criminal case as forensic evidence will be discussed through case studies. The role of DNA in court
Much of the credit for these exonerations goes to teams of reporters, professors, students, and pro bono attorneys who were willing to listen to the claims of innocence from imprisoned defendants and who dedicated hundreds of hours of uncompensated time to proving these men innocent (Gould, 2008)." In fact, in June of 2009 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that prisoners do not have the right to DNA
DNA Research "Unfortunately, the current Federal and State DNA collection and analysis system suffers from a variety of problems. In many cases public crime laboratories are overwhelmed by backlogs of unanalyzed DNA samples, samples that could be used to solve violent crimes if the States had the funds to eliminate this backlog…" (U.S. Representative Sue Myrick, arguing that federal funds should be appropriated to states to assist DNA cases; Congressional Record,
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now