Easton Verduzco

Crime Scene #1
Evidence Being Examined: Nucleic DNA
Summary of Science:
DNA profiling was originally developed as a method of determining paternity, in which samples taken
under clinical conditions were examined for genetic evidence that could link parent to child. It first made
its way into the courts in 1986, when police in England asked molecular biologist Alec Jeffreys, who had
begun investigating the use of DNA for forensics, to use DNA to verify the confession of a 17 year-old
boy in two rape-murders in the English Midlands. The tests proved the teenager was in fact not the
perpetrator and the actual attacker was eventually caught, also using DNA testing. The first DNA-based
conviction in the United States occurred shortly after in 1987 when the Circuit Court in Orange County,
Florida, convicted Tommy Lee Andrews of rape after DNA tests matched his DNA from a blood sample
with that of semen traces found in a rape victim. The first state high court to rule in favor of admitting
DNA evidence came two years later in West Virginia. In the first years following these groundbreaking
cases, the admissibility of DNA evidence was not largely disputed. That began to change once the
technique began to become more widely used by prosecutors.
A common procedure for DNA fingerprinting is restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). In this
method, DNA is extracted from a sample and cut into segments using special restriction enzymes. RFLP
focuses on segments that contain sequences of repeated DNA bases, which vary widely from person to
person. The segments are separated using a laboratory technique called electrophoresis, which sorts the
fragments by length. The segments are radioactively tagged to produce a visual pattern known as an
autoradiograph, or "DNA fingerprint," on X-ray film. A newer method known as short tandem repeats
analyzes DNA segments for the number of repeats at 13 specific DNA sites. The chance of
misidentification in this procedure is one in several billion.
DNA is a used in many fields of work. We have even began to extract DNA from archeological artifacts
that have been found over the past couple centuries. The analysis of DNA extracted from archaeological
specimens can be used to address anthropological questions. This helps in tracking DNA evolution,
migratory patterns and species evolution over the ages.
After analyzing the DNA of the blood found on Scott Hendersons sink, we determined that Scott
Henderson was lying. The blood found on his sink was not his own and in fact it was Aaron Lees. With
this new evidence we now have a strong enough case to convict Scott Henderson with the murder and
bring him to court.
Sources:
http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1905706,00.html

http://www.newenglandinnocence.org/knowledge-center/resources/dna/
http://www.forensicmag.com/articles/2005/01/evolution-dna-evidence-crime-solving-judicial-andlegislative-history