DNA in the Court

A detailed Summary of DNA in the Court


DNA is somewhat new in the forensic world. Before DNA, people were tried and convicted based on fingerprint analysis, the Greiss test, and lie detectors. However, all of these procedures have proven to be less reliable than DNA. DNA is the genetic make up of a person. In the book article "DNA in Court" by William Tucker, Tucker pointed out that " no two people, except identical twins, have the same genetic makeup (Tucker 577)." This is helpful because it means that there will be less people falsely convicted of crimes. Therefore, it is not the DNA evidence that is being debated; it is the procedures that are followed that are being debated.

"Samples could be accidentally switched or mislabeled- any number of things might happen. As a result of all this an innocent person might be convicted of a crime (Tucker 581)." Tucker believes that the only problem with DNA testing is that false positives could send an innocent person to jail. Everyday on the news or in the newspaper


Dorothy Nelkin said it correctly in her article "The Grandiose Claims of Geneticists." She stated that scientists damage an investigation and trial when they use "overblown rhetoric and misleading metaphors to convey the importance of their work (Nelkin 525)." The big words and misleading phrases that scientists use misleads jurors and therefore they are unable to make an educated and responsible decision based on the facts. They are confused by the testimony and heavily rely on it to either convict or acquit a defendant.

, one hears about another person being released due to conclusive DNA evidence that clears this person.

"Another major problem that arises in forensic DNA typing is contamination," stated Peter J. Neufeld and Neville Coleman in "When Science Takes the Witness Stand (Neufeld Coleman 571)." That person released may have been cleared of the crime they were originally charged with. However, what if they had committed the crime? Now this person is walking the stre

Some common words found in the essay are:
Neufeld Coleman, Tucker Tucker, Simpson DNA, Claims Geneticists, DNA DNA, Dorothy Nelkin, neufeld coleman, person released, process dna, innocent person, dna evidence, dna testing, ninety-eight percent, dna dna,

Approximate Word count = 670
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Science

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