MetaFilter posts tagged with DNA and crime

Blood sucking leeches

caddis — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:59:18 -0800

Leeches, horror film staples, medicinal wonders, and now crime fighters. Police cracked the case of a home invasion and safe robbery when they found one of the suspects' blood inside a leech on the floor and matched his dna.

The Sins of your Fathers

protorp — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 09:57:07 -0800

Familial genetic profiling of law enforcement DNA databases has already been used to succesfully establish both guilt and innocence. Legal and moral questions on these expanded techniques abound and are comprehensively explored by a speaker at a recent FBI symposium on the topic. In the author's words, scenarios previously limited to movies like Minority Report are unfolding quietly, before most of us have thought about the consequences. (Via)

One-woman crime spree

yoyo_nyc — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:12:56 -0800

She robs, she injects herself with heroin, she flits across borders like a ghost, she seems to kill with almost professional precision, she leaves clues and bodies – and she has no identity. The suspect, known as the Phantom of Heilbronn, is wanted in connection with 30 crimes in three countries, including six murders and dozens of robberies. Police has no idea what she looks like, they do not know how old she is, but they have one big clue - her DNA. Just today, a Metafilter post was about how reliable DNA is in identifying suspects. A one-woman crime spree? Maybe the employees of the company that provides the PCR kits to the police should handle over their DNA to avoid a systematic error?

How reliable is DNA in identifying suspects?

finite — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 12:18:44 -0800

A discovery leads to questions about whether the odds of people sharing genetic profiles are sometimes higher than portrayed. Calling the finding meaningless, the FBI has sought to block such inquiry.

The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar

smoothvirus — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:22:07 -0800

Bobby Dunbar was a four year-old boy that vanished in 1912, while on a fishing trip with his family in a Louisiana swamp. For weeks, searchers combed the area looking for him. The lake where he went missing was dynamited. Alligators were captured and had their bellies slit open to see if the body was inside. Nothing was found except a set of child's footprints leading to an old railroad trestle. Eight months later, the police found Bobby in the company of a drifter with a horse-drawn cart. He protested his innocence but was arrested and charged with kidnapping. Another woman came forward and claimed Bobby was, in fact, her son. But she was an unmarried fieldworker, and her claims were dismissed. The crime became a nationwide media event and the boy was returned to his parents, and their hometown held a parade in his honor. Bobby returned to his life. Ninety-one years later, Bobby Dunbar's granddaughter uncovered the truth.

DNA frees 3 convicts after 17-year incarcerations.

trharlan — Thu, 12 Jun 2003 11:14:23 -0800

DNA frees 3 convicts after 17-year incarcerations --Barry Scheck and The Innocence Project have struck again. Thus far, they have used DNA to free 128 wrongly convicted people. Read Frontline's interview with Scheck. Learn about a sister organization, Northwestern's Center on Wrongful Convictions, which has freed nine Illinois men who were once sentenced to death. For those sentenced to time in the can, prison can be a rough place. How can we prevent innocent people from being put to death? Or fates worse than death?

DNA and sampling

titboy — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 14:39:27 -0800

I just discovered the answer to a question I asked here. Apparently, the police can get a DNA sample from a suspect without the suspect's knowledge or consent. The police probably had a warrant, but the article doesn't say.

methylsalicylate — Tue, 20 Mar 2001 04:02:14 -0800

Strathclyde Police, Scotland, given the right to take DNA samples from anyone arrested. Previously DNA samples were taken only from those suspected of murders, sex attacks or serious assaults.

Sir John Orr, Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police, denied that compulsory testing would infringe people's human rights. He said: "The tests are not invasive, not intrusive and not against civil liberties. The vast majority of people will be asked only to give a simple mouth swab, which can be done in seconds. This is a magnificent tool which will help detect crime and the public should be very pleased."

Read: you have nothing to fear if you're innocent...