Effective Use of DNA Evidence in Jury Trials

INTRODUCTION The advent of forensic DNA typing techniques in 1985 revolutionized the investigation and prosecution of sexual and other violent offenders. Previously, traditional serological analyses furnished investigators, prosecutors and others in the criminal justice system with important scientific information. These conventional testing approaches provided only limited information regarding the inclusion of suspected offenders. Commonly, analysis of a sexual assault sample might reveal that a suspect was not excluded as a potential contributor to a recovered semen sample. However, that same test result might also indicate that ten percent of the male population may similarly not be excluded.