Arresting crime: Expanding the scope of DNA databases in America

Texas Law Review

Volumn 79, Issue 4, 2001, Pages

[No Author Info available]

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0042337126     PISSN: 00404411     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (9)

1. DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is found in every cell in the human body and consists of two molecular strands, oriented in opposite directions, which are made up of repeating sequences of one of four components called nucleotides. See Leroy Hood & Lee Rowen, Genes, Genomes, and Society, in GENETIC SECRETS: PROTECTING PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY IN THE GENETIC ERA 3-5 (Mark A. Rothstein ed., 1997). The nucleotide bases, guanine (G), cytosine (C), adenine (A), and thymine (T), are paired across the molecular strands, and together form the familiar double-helix DNA molecule. See id. at 4-5. Variations in the order of the nucleotide bases spell out units of genetic information, the sequences of code known as genes. See DANIEL J. KELVES & LEROY HOOD, THE CODE OF CODES 15 (1992).
2. DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is found in every cell in the human body and consists of two molecular strands, oriented in opposite directions, which are made up of repeating sequences of one of four components called nucleotides. See Leroy Hood & Lee Rowen, Genes, Genomes, and Society, in GENETIC SECRETS: PROTECTING PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY IN THE GENETIC ERA 3-5 (Mark A. Rothstein ed., 1997). The nucleotide bases, guanine (G), cytosine (C), adenine (A), and thymine (T), are paired across the molecular strands, and together form the familiar double-helix DNA molecule. See id. at 4-5. Variations in the order of the nucleotide bases spell out units of genetic information, the sequences of code known as genes. See DANIEL J. KELVES & LEROY HOOD, THE CODE OF CODES 15 (1992).
3. DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is found in every cell in the human body and consists of two molecular strands, oriented in opposite directions, which are made up of repeating sequences of one of four components called nucleotides. See Leroy Hood & Lee Rowen, Genes, Genomes, and Society, in GENETIC SECRETS: PROTECTING PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY IN THE GENETIC ERA 3-5 (Mark A. Rothstein ed., 1997). The nucleotide bases, guanine (G), cytosine (C), adenine (A), and thymine (T), are paired across the molecular strands, and together form the familiar double-helix DNA molecule. See id. at 4-5. Variations in the order of the nucleotide bases spell out units of genetic information, the sequences of code known as genes. See DANIEL J. KELVES & LEROY HOOD, THE CODE OF CODES 15 (1992).
4. See Ronald Bailey, Unlocking the Cells, REASON MAGAZINE, Jan. 1, 2000, at 50, 50. The capture of Colin Pitchfork, a 27-year-old baker in Leicestershire, England, was the subject of Joseph Wambaugh's 1989 best seller, The Blooding. See JOSEPH WAMBAUGH, THE BLOODING (1989). After the killings of two teenage girls near the small English village of Narborough, police investigating the crime requested that every man between the ages of 13 and 30 in three nearby villages, more than 5000 people, submit blood samples for DNA analysis. See Jerry Adler & John McCormick, The DNA Detectives, NEWSWEEK, Nov. 16, 1998, at 66, 66. Pitchfork's DNA matched the semen taken from the bodies, and his subsequent conviction made Pitchfork the first murderer to be identified on the basis of his DNA. Id. It should be noted, however, that Pitchfork was not identified originally through the DNA match; he was arrested after police learned that he had convinced another baker to take the test in his place and subsequently confessed to the crime. See ROBERT J. GOODWIN & JIMMY GURULE, CRIMINAL AND SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE 287 (1997).
5. See Ronald Bailey, Unlocking the Cells, REASON MAGAZINE, Jan. 1, 2000, at 50, 50. The capture of Colin Pitchfork, a 27-year-old baker in Leicestershire, England, was the subject of Joseph Wambaugh's 1989 best seller, The Blooding. See JOSEPH WAMBAUGH, THE BLOODING (1989). After the killings of two teenage girls near the small English village of Narborough, police investigating the crime requested that every man between the ages of 13 and 30 in three nearby villages, more than 5000 people, submit blood samples for DNA analysis. See Jerry Adler & John McCormick, The DNA Detectives, NEWSWEEK, Nov. 16, 1998, at 66, 66. Pitchfork's DNA matched the semen taken from the bodies, and his subsequent conviction made Pitchfork the first murderer to be identified on the basis of his DNA. Id. It should be noted, however, that Pitchfork was not identified originally through the DNA match; he was arrested after police learned that he had convinced another baker to take the test in his place and subsequently confessed to the crime. See ROBERT J. GOODWIN & JIMMY GURULE, CRIMINAL AND SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE 287 (1997).
6. See Ronald Bailey, Unlocking the Cells, REASON MAGAZINE, Jan. 1, 2000, at 50, 50. The capture of Colin Pitchfork, a 27-year-old baker in Leicestershire, England, was the subject of Joseph Wambaugh's 1989 best seller, The Blooding. See JOSEPH WAMBAUGH, THE BLOODING (1989). After the killings of two teenage girls near the small English village of Narborough, police investigating the crime requested that every man between the ages of 13 and 30 in three nearby villages, more than 5000 people, submit blood samples for DNA analysis. See Jerry Adler & John McCormick, The DNA Detectives, NEWSWEEK, Nov. 16, 1998, at 66, 66. Pitchfork's DNA matched the semen taken from the bodies, and his subsequent conviction made Pitchfork the first murderer to be identified on the basis of his DNA. Id. It should be noted, however, that Pitchfork was not identified originally through the DNA match; he was arrested after police learned that he had convinced another baker to take the test in his place and subsequently confessed to the crime. See ROBERT J. GOODWIN & JIMMY GURULE, CRIMINAL AND SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE 287 (1997).
7. See Ronald Bailey, Unlocking the Cells, REASON MAGAZINE, Jan. 1, 2000, at 50, 50. The capture of Colin Pitchfork, a 27-year-old baker in Leicestershire, England, was the subject of Joseph Wambaugh's 1989 best seller, The Blooding. See JOSEPH WAMBAUGH, THE BLOODING (1989). After the killings of two teenage girls near the small English village of Narborough, police investigating the crime requested that every man between the ages of 13 and 30 in three nearby villages, more than 5000 people, submit blood samples for DNA analysis. See Jerry Adler & John McCormick, The DNA Detectives, NEWSWEEK, Nov. 16, 1998, at 66, 66. Pitchfork's DNA matched the semen taken from the bodies, and his subsequent conviction made Pitchfork the first murderer to be identified on the basis of his DNA. Id. It should be noted, however, that Pitchfork was not identified originally through the DNA match; he was arrested after police learned that he had convinced another baker to take the test in his place and subsequently confessed to the crime. See ROBERT J. GOODWIN & JIMMY GURULE, CRIMINAL AND SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE 287 (1997).
8. See Adler & McCormick, supra note 2, at 66. Additionally, the exoneration of 17-year-old Rodney Buckland, originally suspected of committing one of the murders, makes him the first person in history to be cleared of a crime by DNA evidence. Id.
9. The first use of DNA evidence in a United States court came in the 1987 trial in Orlando, Florida of accused rapist Tommy Lee Andrews. See GOODWIN & GURULE, supra note 2, at 287. Scientists determined that the semen from the victim matched Andrews's DNA to a probability of one in ten billion. Id. Andrews was subsequently convicted and sentenced to 22 years in prison. Id.