How the Introduction of DNA Evidence has Contributed to the Process of Homicide Investigations

How the Introduction of DNA Evidence has Contributed to the Process of Homicide Investigations

According to Webby (2008), technology in the DNA forensic has proved to be of great significance to various detectives handling a rising number of past committed homicides, a development that is predicted to rise as years pass by. In cases of homicides, this generally entails acquiring samples from the scenes of crime as evidence including the suspect, extracting the DNA sample in addition to examining it for the existence of particular DNA regions or markers.

Webby (2008),argues that since 2009,the DNA samples have always been taken from anybody arrested as a suspect or accused of any criminal act and thereafter  put into the federal database. Webby (2008) goes on pointing out that, in the past, only the accused felons, parolees and individuals arrested as suspect of rape or murder were to provide samples. Investigators obtain the markers contained in the DNA sample by creating various pieces of DNA probes that try to find as well as bind to a matching DNA series in given samples. A number of probes compared to the DNA samples results to distinguishing patterns for various individuals. Investigators make a comparison of the DNA profiles to establish whether the suspects’ sample is similar to the sample from the evidence.

DNA testing has therefore helped identify criminals many years after they had committed the crimes. Proofs kept for the sake of giving rulings may also be able to exonerate individuals who are accused wrongly therefore identifying the real perpetrator.DNA samples from the crime investigation scenes act as important evidence. For instance, a suspect in San Jose was arraigned following the 1991 slaying of a mother and her toddler. The DNA evidence link the suspect to the killing 16 years later with his own blood leading the detectives to prove him as the suspect who killed the mother and her toddler (Webby, 2008).

According to Webby (2008), the authorities had matched blood obtained from the crime scene in San Jose and that of the state’s database. The victim’s boyfriend who was initially viewed as the suspect was then exonerated and the 49-year old charged with the year 1991 double homicide. The 49-year old was not viewed as a suspect in 1991 and neither was he on any investigative radar before. The DNA collected by the careful investigators from the blood that had poured at the murdered mother’s apartment in San Jose. In general, the introduction of DNA has helped identify criminals many years after they had committed the crimes exonerating individuals who are accused wrongly therefore identifying the real perpetrator.

In 1998, for instance a group of officers sent out by Reading Police Department were faced up with a horrifying scene of a 43-year old lady stifled to death in Redding. Whereas the officers had proofs of blood as well as finger prints, the resultant investigation was unsuccessful. With no guide to execute, the proofs were preserved with the case going cold until a sophisticated DNA database enabled the investigators identify the killer. Just about two decades after the 43-year old lady’s death, the suspect, was again indicted over a US Bank robbery in Redding. The suspect fled and was later arrested. Just as anybody else is being processed for a criminal act in California, sample cells from his inner cheek were put in use in a technique commonly known as the ‘buccal swab.’(Hardee, 2010).

The sample was thereafter entered into a combined DNA Index System. In 2009, the Department of Justice in California notified the investigators in Redding that the suspected criminal’s sample matched with that contained in the DNA found in blood that was in the bamboo stalks that were used to cover the body of the 43-year old who was found murdered a decade ago. This placed the police investigators on the brink resolving the 43-year old lady’s murder. This was the first cold murder case to be decided using the DNA technology.

The suspect indicted in both the murder and bank robbery was never a suspect during th.............