Today in criminal convictions, it is prevalent and necessary that there is evidence collected in order to hopefully find and put away the people who committed the crimes. Serology is an important factor that allows this to occur. Serology is the study and identification of bodily fluids such as blood salvia and semen in order to proceed in criminal investigations and legal processes. Blood, saliva, and semen can be readily found in sexual assault and homicide cases. In the case of Dennis Maher, serology is something that should have been considered in order to make a conviction. Instead, none of the evidence that was collected was tested to exclude him, and he was put away in jail based on eyewitness identifications. The crimes that occurred in 1983 ended with Dennis Maher, a solider for the United States, being charged and convicted for rape, assault with intent to rape, assault & battery, and aggravated rape in the year of 1984 based on Eyewitness testimony (NEIP, 2011).
Three rapes were reported in the 1983 in the state of Massachusetts. The first rape was reported on August 17, 1983 a women by the name of Marilyn Goss. She was raped by an intruder while she spent the night at the Casa Manor Motel in Ayer, Massachusetts (Stearns, 2006). On November 16, 1983 a woman was attacked while she was walking home in the city Lowell, MA. A man she did not know approached her, tried to converse with her, and then forced her into a nearby yard, where the man sexually assaulted her (Know the Cases: Dennis Maher). On November 17, 1983, about twenty four hours after the other attack in Lowell, MA, a different woman was harshly shoved to the ground by a man who produced a knife. The woman was luckily enough to escape the man after a struggle...
... middle of paper ...
...cap of the sperm pink and the nucleus red, and a picroindigocarmine dye, which turns the mid piece of the sperm blue and the tail of the sperm green. The stained samples would then be placed under a microscope and hopefully spermatozoa would be present so that DNA testing could be performed.
As stated before, in the Maher case spermatozoa were found in underwear of the rape victim in Lowell, and also spermatozoa were located in the rape kit on the vaginal swab slide that was developed at the time of the crime. In both the spermatozoa were found, collected, and DNA testing was completed on the sample to determine if Dennis Maher committed the crime.
Works Cited
http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Dennis_Maher.php
http://www.newenglandinnocence.org/2011/dennis-maher/
http://pacer.mad.uscourts.gov/dc/cgi-bin/recentops.pl?filename=stearns/pdf/maher56f.pdf
On August 3, 1979, a female was assaulted and raped in her apartment. Victor Burnette, 19 years old, was brought in as a suspect and the female said that he was the perpetrator. Burnette was convicted based on pubic hairs found at the scene. He spent seven years in prison and was released on parole in ’87. Two decades later, Burnette asked to have his case reworked using DNA analysis and was found to be not guilty. The serologist who worked his case was Mary Jane Burton. By the time Burnette cleared his name, at least five other people had been exonerated from their convictions due to Burton’s evidence. (“Victor”) Hair analysis has been a part of forensic science since the beginning. However, some have begun to question the reliability of
Rape is a hidden epidemic that affects many lives world wide. It is a problem that is so terrifying and uncomfortable that people do not talk about it. John Krakauer, author of Missoula, focuses on this issue of rape in the college town of Missoula, Montana. His focus is specifically on the case of Allison Huguet and Beau Donaldson. As the progression of Allison 's case continues we learn of more and more rape cases that happened to women on this same campus. A majority of women do not report these cases, we later learn as Krakauer continues through Allison 's case, because reporting and pursuing the case would be giving their life away. [4] Of course Allison decides to go through the trails of Beau Donaldson, however it is obvious that it is extremely difficult to convict someone with little evidence. As hard of a read as Missoula
electrophoresis. The way the PCR method works is by first mixing a solution containing the
At 5:00 a.m. on September 29, 1987, an unknown intruder broke into a 15-year-old girl’s bedroom. He began to assault her until the mother of the girl discovered the intruder on top of her. The man then fled.
On Wednesday, November 16, 2011, Katherine Stang, Aresh Kabirnavaei, and Andrew Roller, all students in the Master’s of Forensic Science program gave thesis presentations to the Forensic Seminar Class. The following paragraphs will summarize each topic.
McClintock J. T. (2014). Forensic Analysis of Biological Evidence: A Laboratory Guide for Serological and DNA Typing. CRC Press.
...vitz, M. (2009). Forensic psychology: Emerging topics and expanding roles. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 52(1), 71-71-72.
And I am not a private investigator or the real life version of Sherlock Holmes, or at least I don’t pretend to be. But, yes, every day for the past month that I've been assigned this project for my English class I've been trying to figure out what went wrong with DNA evidence and rape kits that has led to wrongful
Edmond Locard, founder of the Institute of Criminalistics, developed what has become known as Locard’s Exchange Principle. This states that “every contact leaves a trace”, indicating that a criminal will leave a substance of some sort and take away substances during the commission of a serious crime. Trace evidence often refers to samples of a substance, such as paint chips, hairs, fibers, and textile fabrics. Crime scenes will commonly contain trace evidence, often caused by the criminal unconsciously coming into contact with surfaces and leaving behind or picking up trace materials within an area. In 1831, Leuch was the first person to note that amylase activity in the human saliva, which is a major factor for trace evidence. In 1901, German immunologist, Paul Uhlenhuth practiced a part of trace evidence by developing the precipitin test for species. In 1910, Victor Balthazard and Marcelle Lambert, published "Le poil de l'homme et des animaux", also translated as "The hair of man and animals", which was one the first comprehensive hair study successfully written. This includes numerous microscopic studies of hairs from most animals. As a result, during one of the first lawful cases ever involving hairs, Rosella Rousseau was made confess to murder in 1910. In 1945, Frank Lunquist developed the acid phosphatase test for semen, which helps find the DNA of a possible criminal. In 1950, Max Frei-Sulzer developed the tape lift method of collecting trace evidence to make things such as hairs or fibers more portable for investigators. Lastly, in the 1960’s, Maurice Muller adapted the Ouchterlony antibody- antigen diffusion test for precipitin testing to determine species of different animal types, which relates to the feather testing ...
Sexual assault is an offense that plagues many U.S. citizens. Although some studies show that rape is on the decline, other studies report that the phenomena actually occuring is that less rape victims are reporting the crime. In fact, approximately 68% of sexual assaults go unreported to the police according to the U.S. Department of Justice in a National Crime Victimization Survey from 2008-2012. It is common knowledge that rape victims are usually severely traumatized after the event, which leaves them susceptible to various emotions such as shame, anxiety, numbness, fear, denial, and guilt. Because of this, many rape victims decide to repress their experience and let it go unheard. However, not only does this prevent them from healing emotionally,
The process of touch DNA was fist demonstrated in 1997 and since then has been extremely useful in criminal cases. The United States adopted this method of analysis in the year 2003. Though it was first used only about 15 years, in the past few years it has been used more. The use of touch DNA has grown more popular because there is no visible evidence needed. With other common forms of DNA collection, the evidence needed, for example blood or semen, must be visible in order to collect a sample.3 On average, a sufficient amount of DNA would need to be the
Saferstein, R. (2009). Forensic science: From the crime scene to the crime lab. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall
Gaensslen, R. E., Harris, H A., & Lee, H. (2008). Introduction to Forensic Science and Criminalistics. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. .
In 1987, United States used DNA evidence to prosecute and convict a serial rapist. It all started in Florida when a woman was awoken by noise. She woke up and a man was standing over her holding a knife towards her, threatening to kill her if she didn’t comply. While she was being raped she started fighting back, she was cut on her neck, legs, feet, and face. Once she was raped the rapist stole her purse and left her home. The victim reported the crime to police shortly after. During an examination a rape kit was performed and evidence of semen was f...
Collecting and analyzing semen is the easiest way to locate a suspect in a sexual abuse case. Semen, also known as seminal fluid which is produced by post-pubescent males and ejaculated following sexual simulation. It is a semifluid mixture of cells, ions, salts, amino acids, sugars and other organic and inorganic materials. It is supplied by the seminal vesicles, the prostate gland and Cowper’s glands as a heterogeneous gelatinous mass. A human male can ejaculate from 2 to 6 milliliters that sometimes contain 100 to 150 million sperm cells per milliliter. Semen can remain inside the body of the victim for up to five days. Serologists can test for semen using a confirmatory test called the christmas tree stain. This is the most reliable way to confirm the presence of semen. A serologist uses two reagents in a row to create a unique stain. This turns the neck and tail of the sperm to green and blue. A test called the Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) can also be used. This test is also used to detect prostate cancer in men. Semen contains a high level of PSA which is useful for identification. If semen is located on a sample a blue color will appear on the PSA test. Over the years semen has been used to solve many criminal cases. In 1975 when Catherine Ainsworth did not show up for work her concerned friends discovered her body in her apartment.