DNA evidence and miscarriages of justice – ScienceDirect

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I am not an attorney and any comments I post are not intended, nor should they be construed, as legal advice. If you need legal advice, please consult a legal expert who is familiar with the area of legal expertise you need.

Thank you to Debbie of Cruwys News for sharing this article: DNA evidence and miscarriages of justice https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0379073818307436. You can download the article as a PDF.

I included the various topics mentioned in the article as well as a brief synopsis of the key points mentioned in the article.

Here I describe several proven miscarriages of justice have occurred: contamination; background DNA; secondary transfer and the database trawl. Two examples of dangerous practice are provided: DNA as sole evidence and qualitative reporting.

1. Context matters

2. A case example of forensic laboratory contamination

3. A case example of background DNA

4. A case example of secondary transfer

5. A case example of a database trawl leading to wrongful arrest

6. Dangers of qualitative reporting of complex mixtures

7. The problem of DNA as sole evidence

8. Conclusion