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Prime Time CrimeDNA
DNA acquittals shaking up forensic science
Courts believe DNA evidence because it is scientifically proven. It originated in the worlds of science, with molecular biology and clinical medicine. But in criminology different rules apply. With the number of DNA acquittals rising, many defense attorneys and prosecutors say it's time to take a hard look at current forensic techniques. (NBC)
DALLAS - Charles Chatman said throughout his 26 years in prison that he never raped the woman who lived five houses down from him. Now 47, Chatman is expected to win his freedom Thursday on the basis of new DNA testing that lawyers say proves his innocence and adds to Dallas County's nationally unmatched number of wrongfully convicted inmates. (AP)
Forensic expert fired over DNA test
LANSING, Mich. - A state forensics scientist who said she tested her husband's underwear for DNA to determine if he was cheating on her has been fired. (AP) MORE: Briefs expose ex-CFLer's affair
OTTAWA - Call it CSI Vimy. In 2003, construction workers in northern France uncovered the remains of two Canadian soldiers from World War I, killed in a trench assault soon after the famed victory at Vimy Ridge. (Toronto Star)
Americans have a complex relationship with the death penalty, which is rooted in their national identity and yet which is becoming increasingly difficult to support. (National Post) PREVIOUS: Part 1: To kill the death penalty Part 2: Still an eye for an eye in Texas
Thief got under victim's nails
VANCOUVER - For a feisty Kerrisdale grandmother, it was a case of scratch-and-win. Thanks to an astute police constable and the wonders of modern science, police have made an arrest in the granny's purse-snatching, for a belated birthday present and an early Christmas gift. (Vancouver Province)
Man free 21 years after wrongful rape conviction
NEW YORK - A man who spent more than two decades in prison after being wrongfully convicted of a brutal rape was freed Thursday because DNA evidence has cleared him. Relatives of Alan Newton, 44, whooped loudly as he entered the crowded courtroom. (AP) MORE: Innocent Project
Family DNA helps cops catch criminals
In 1988, 20-year-old Lynette White was fatally stabbed in South Wales. The murder went unsolved for 15 years, until a fresh DNA sweep of her apartment in 2000 turned up spots of blood on a skirting board that had been missed the first time around. (Fox)
Husband sought in double murder
EUGENE - The bodies of a slain woman and her daughter, exhumed from an unmarked grave in Kelso, Wash. for DNA testing last April, have been returned to their native Fiji, where they were cremated three weeks ago in a Hindu ceremony before their ashes were scattered to the sea. Two decades ago, Raj Narain, 24, a Fiji Islander living in Eugene, and 14-month-old Kamnee Koushal Narain, were found in separate southwest Washington rivers. (Asian Pacific Post) PREVIOUS: Hunt goes to Vancouver Can you help ID on 20-year-old cold case
Investigators search DNA database
Investigators are combing through a DNA database of missing people to try and locate the owners of two large right feet washed up on islands in the Strait of Georgia. (Vancouver Sun)
PREVIOUS: Two right feet found on Georgia Strait beaches
DNA technology heat up cold case
VANCOUVER - Lillian Jean O'Dare is the oldest case on Vancouver's list of 65 missing women. (Vancouver Sun) MORE: Skeleton of Canadian woman identified after 30 years
In real life, Alexandre Beaudoin usually works alone and some lab tests can take days or weeks. (Montreal Gazette)
4,000 more 'cold cases' reviewed
LONDON - Forensic scientists are to begin reviewing around 4,000 more unsolved sex crimes, the government has said. The latest DNA techniques will be used to re-analyse evidence from rape and other serious sexual assault "cold cases", some dating back to 1991. So far the Forensic Science Service has re-examined over 11,000 cold cases leading to the conviction of 30 sex offenders. (BBC) PREVIOUS: Forensic lab errors in hundred of crime cases Police to review DNA criminal cases
DNA clears man of 1981 rape conviction
DALLAS - A decorated Vietnam veteran convicted of rape 25 years ago became a free man Tuesday after a judge ruled he probably wouldn't have been found guilty if DNA testing had been available. (AP)
LONDON - Law enforcement agencies are eyeing a new forensic technique that can isolate individual DNA in cases where more than one person's samples are found. (CTV) MORE: FSS boosts volume crime detection
WINDSOR - Judy Sawchuk was 25 years old when her battered body was found lying in a dried pool of blood on the floor of her downtown Windsor apartment. (Windsor Star) RELATED: Sex attack solved 11 years later
MANCHESTER, UK - A serial burglar was jailed for four years yesterday after being trapped by a bead of sweat he left at the scene of one of his crimes. (Telegraph)
Man serving time for '97 killing faces new charge
TACOMA - Pierce County prosecutors say new DNA testing of blood found on Cecil Davis' boots back in 1997 revealed it was almost certainly from Jane Hungerford-Trapp, who was found dead on the landing of a Hilltop-area apartment-complex stairway April 14, 1996. (Post-Intelligencer)
Police make arrest in 21-year-old cold case
WINNIPEG - A man serving time in an Ontario prison for bank robbery is now charged with first-degree murder, thanks to DNA testing in a 21-year-old homicide case. Winnipeg police say Robert Joseph Kociuk, 64, of Joyceville, Ont., has been charged with the 1984 stabbing death of 48-year-old Beverly Dyke. (CTV)
VANCOUVER - DNA tests have produced a match between the first foot, found last August on Jedediah Island in the Georgia Strait, and the disappearance of a depressed BC man at about the same time. Due to a request from the family, the identity of the victim will not be released to the public. (CTV)
Police identify one 'mystery foot' owner
Foot belongs to missing BC man
Washington State to send skeleton to BC
'No foul play' as first foot identified
DNA evidence in M25 rape trial
MAIDSTONE, UK - A railway worker went on a "campaign of rape" against women and girls aged between 10 and 52, a jury at Maidstone crown court heard yesterday. "I'm not going to hurt you physically. This will just leave you emotionally scarred," he allegedly told one victim. (The Guardian)
OPP website seeks help to identify cold cases
TORONTO - The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and the chief coroner's office have launched a new website, The Resolve Initiative, to help identify dead and missing people in cases that date back as far as 1975. (CTV) WEBSITE: OPP: Unidentified bodies / remains list
Accused killer left his DNA at scene
TORONTO - The trial of the man charged with killing Yorkville commercial real estate broker Lisa Posluns three years ago began yesterday with the prosecutor describing the Crown's scientific case against the accused as "very powerful evidence of his presence" at the crime scene. (National Post)
Almost half of all criminals convicted of serious offences in Canada could be getting away with murder with the help of judges who are ignoring the law of the land. (Toronto Sun)
RELATED: DNA: Silent Witness Magic key unlocks prison cells Son jailed on hearsay evidence
CSI students get training house
The work is more laborious, the clothes less glamorous and it takes a much larger team to solve a crime. Those are the main differences between Hollywood's version of forensic science as portrayed in the hit television series CSI and real life, according to those studying the discipline at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT). (Toronto Star)
DNA testing is finally done in 1993 murder
FREDERICTON - George Pitt always said the only thing he was guilty of was having bad friends, and that the only thing prosecutors put on trial was his lifestyle. (CanWest) PREVIOUS: Injusticebusters: George Pitt
Lindsey's Law aims to link DNA with missing persons
VANCOUVER - Lindsey Jill Nicholls' remains may be among about 300 unidentified sets sitting in Canada's morgues. Her family has no way of knowing, but her mom is determined to change that with ''Lindsey's Law.'' (CanWest)
DNA tests confirm parentage of 'Baby 81'
KALMUNAI, SRI LANKA - DNA tests have confirmed that "Baby 81" – an infant who survived the Dec. 26 tsunami – belongs to a couple who fought for custody of the child. (CBC) PREVIOUS: Couple arrested over tsunami baby
Man confessed to sex crimes he didn't commit
Quebec City police say a man they arrested in 1995 spent five years in jail for crimes he did not commit. Simon Marshall confessed to a series of sexual assaults but police now say DNA evidence proves he was innocent. (CBC)
Inmate charged in 1990 stabbing of Seattle woman
SEATTLE - King County prosecutors brought a first-degree murder charge yesterday against a prison inmate whom they accuse of the brutal stabbing death of Betty Minnis in her home 14 years ago. DNA evidence from the Minnis case matched DNA analysis on file in a state databank as belonging to Trenino Rollins. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Killer gets life for 1968 slaying
SEATTLE - With the help of DNA technology and a newly installed team dedicated to unraveling unsolved "cold cases," police charged John Dwight Canaday, who has been serving a life sentence for killing two other women, with the slaying of Sandra Bowman, a 16-year-old pregnant newlywed. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) PREVIOUS: Suspect named in 1968 killing
Bill C-13: The DNA identification act and the National defence act
DNA links inmate to deaths of 12 women
LOS ANGELES - Two Los Angeles cold case homicide detectives used DNA test results to link an imprisoned rapist to the deaths of 12 women and an unborn girl between 1987 and 1998. The suspect in the killings, 37-year-old Chester Dwayne Turner, was convicted of rape in March 2002 and is serving an eight-year term at California State Prison. (CNN)
Oversight of crime lab staff has been lax
SPOKANE - A close look at the Washington State Patrol crime labs reveals a stressed system in which officials have been slow to deal with misconduct by long-time employees -- dating back to one of the first scientists hired more than 30 years ago. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) PREVIOUS: Seattle Post-Intelligencer Special: Shadow of doubt
Killer caught by relative's DNA
SURREY, UK - A relative of Craig Harman, jailed for killing lorry driver Michael Little, inadvertently led police to their man after officers used pioneering DNA techniques. (BBC) RELATED: Global DNA test narrows hunt for serial rapist Serial rapist's DNA is traced to West Indies
DNA tests clear two men convicted of rape
RICHMOND, Va. - Gov. Mark R. Warner on Thursday pardoned two men wrongly convicted of sexual assault and recently cleared after a review of DNA evidence saved years ago by a meticulous forensic scientist. (AP)
Jail term for fake DNA tests boss
BOURNEMOUTH, UK - Simon Mullane, 39, charged up to £600 for tests as managing director of an internet firm based in Poole, Dorset. But Bournemouth Crown Court heard that Mullane was inundated with work and made up results for some 150 swabs which should have been sent abroad. (BBC)
DNA helps police close in on killer in '68 death
SEATTLE - Seattle police detectives are on the verge of solving the killing of 16-year-old Sandra Bowman in 1968 that sickened the community and have found their suspect sitting in a state prison cell, where he is serving time for killing two other women. (Seattle PI) RELATED: State of Washington v. John Dwight Canaday 1971