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DNA as an investigative tool
How DNA has helped the police
Essays on life after wrongful conviction
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In today's society no crime is a perfect crime, with the use of DNA testing and modern advancements in health and forensics even the smallest piece of someone's genome can be cultured and used to identify even the most devious of criminals. The use of DNA testing was able to help change the life of Gene Bibbins for the better and further proved how DNA testing is able to be used to help clarify who the culprit actually is. Gene Bibbins life was forever changed the night that he was unjustifiably arrested for aggravated rape which resulted in his being sentenced to life in prison, only for his case to eventually be reevaluated sixteen years after his conviction, leading to his exoneration.
Gene Bibbins life was forever changed on one fateful night in 1987. The initial crime in which the alleged perpetrator, Gene Bibbins, committed was that of aggravated rape to a 13-year old girl. The
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Throughout the trial, there were multiple points in which Bibbins had false accusations thrown against him from the victim and the law enforcement of Baton Rouge. The victim clearly misidentifies her rapist and clearly is distraught while identifying, "The victim's initial description of the attacker was a man with long and curly hair, wearing jeans. Bibbins was wearing grey shorts and had short, cropped hair at the time" (Innocent Project). As with false accusations there were multiple occasions in which evidence proving Bibbins innocence were not present during the trial. Baton Rouge police had discarded evidence from the crime, "The allegations of evidence tampering gained credibility in 2003 when DNA testing unavailable at the time of Bibbins' trial excluded him as the girl's rapist" (Sherrer). Eventually Bibbins is able to use this information of evidence tampering to help strengthen his case against the city of Baton
According to the Innocence Project (2006), “On September 17, 2001, Chad wrote the Innocence Project in New York, which, in 2003, enlisted pro bono counsel from Holland & Knight to file a motion for DNA testing on Tina’s fingernail scrapings.” The state had tested the DNA that was under Tina’s nail from the first case but at that time it was inadequate and could not be tested. It was not until now that we have the technology capable enough to test it. In June 2004, the test came back negative to matching both Jeremey and Chain Heins but did come from an unknown male. The state argued that it was not enough to overturn the conviction so Chad’s attorney asked the state to do some further testing and to compare the DNA from under the fingernails to the hairs that was found on Tina’s body. It was in 2005 that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed that there was a match between the DNA under Tina’s nail and the pubic hair. According to LaForgia (2006), “this particular type of DNA, the report stated, was found in only about 8 percent of Caucasian American men.” During this process there was a new piece of evidence that Chad’s attorney had learned about during the appeals process, a fingerprint. There were some accusations that the prosecutors never disclosed this information about this third fingerprint and if they did it was too late. The jurors did not even know about this fingerprint and if they did this could have changed the whole case. This fingerprint was found on several objects that included the smoke detector, a piece of glass, and the bathroom sink. It was soon discovered that this fingerprint matched with the DNA found on the bedsheets that Tina was on. This was finally enough evidence to help Chad Heins become exonerated in
The suspect of the two rapes was known to smoke cigarettes, wear white gloves, ride a bike, use a knife, wear shoes that had rubber soles, and have a flashlight. When Ronald Cotton went into the police station to start things out, they took the knife that he always carried out from his front right pocket. Once Detective Gauldin started to question him, Ron told Gauldin that he smoked Newports, which is a type of cigarette. After he was questioned multiple times, they showed him a pair of black canvas World Cup shoes. He said that his shoes insoles were falling apart, but they weren’t that beaten up when the police showed them to him. They then showed him a piece of material that came from his shoe, which was left in Jennifer Thompson’s apartment. After that, they then showed him a red flashlight and accused him of taking batteries from Mary’s house, the other rape
As we learned this week, DNA databases are used by various governmental agencies for several different purposes. We all have seen new magazine shows such as, 20/20 or Dateline, that show the collection of DNA samples from suspects in a case that is compared to those collected at the scene of the crime. But what happens when the sample is an incomplete match, compromised, or contaminated? The answer is the wrongful conviction of innocent citizens. The case that I have decided to highlight, is the wrongful conviction of Herman Atkins. In 1986, Atkins was convicted of two counts of forcible rape, two counts of oral copulation, and robbery in the state of California. It was alleged that Herman entered a shoe store, and raped, beat, and robbed a
Kenneth Bianchi was arrested on January 13, 1979, in Washington and admitted to being involved in killing many girls. On October 22nd, 1979, Kenneth made a plea bargain, which included him testifying about the involvement of his cousin, Angelo Buono. Kenneth’s trial lasted from November 16th, 1981 to November 18th, 1983, in which he had initially pleaded not guilty with insanity. Firstly, Kenneth had managed to convince the professionals that he had a split personality, in which his alter ego, Steve Walker, had committed these crimes. The detectives found out that Steve Walker is a student whose identity was attempted to be stolen, inducing Bianchi to create another alias by the name of Billy to convince the psychiatrists. One psychiatrist noticed his mess up when he was relaying what he remembered which led to his house being searched and books on modern psychology that helped him fake this disorder to be found. Once his secret was out he pleaded guilty and signed a plea bargain, where he would have to attest against his cousin for a lenient punishment. During his trial he convinced his defence lawyer that he was suffering from amnesia and did not think he nor his cousin committed the crimes. Secondly, evidence that condemned Bianchi included DNA results that showed that the pubic hairs on one of the victim’s bodies as well as the steps at the Bayside home. Also, fibres from the carpet in the Bayside home were found on one of the victim’s shoes. When Bianchi’s house was searched, jewellery was found that matched the descriptions of jewellery that two of his victims had worn; displaying that he stole it from them at some point. The case had many people testify against Bianchi. Kathleen Martin and Marlene Katz Booth were extra’s i...
Even though he was not convicted for the rape, the evidence clearing him of rape, stood for the robbery too, as they were both connected. In 1979, two black assailants forced a man and a woman at gun point into the man’s car at a drive-in grocery store. As they were going down the highway, the perpetrators robbed both victims, then forced the man out of the car. After a failed escape attempt by the woman, the two men drove her to a nearby park where they raped her.
...lice or lawyers used their integrity. The police skirted around the law and use evidence that the witnesses said was not correct. They had a description of the suspect that did not match Bloodsworth but, they went after him as well. They also used eyewitness testimony that could have been contaminated.
Jennifer Thompson-Cannino was raped at knife point in her apartment. She was able to escape and identify Ronald Cotton as her attacker. The detective conducting the lineup told Jennifer that she had done great, confirming to her that she had chosen the right suspect. Eleven years later, DNA evidence proved that the man Jennifer Identified, Ronald Cotton was innocent and wrongfully convicted. Instead, Bobby Poole was the real perpetrator. Sadly, there are many other cases of erroneous convictions. Picking cotton is a must read for anybody because it educates readers about shortcomings of eyewitness identification, the police investigative process and the court system.
It was a mistaken identity case where the distressed raped women picked out the wrong black man. Even though the conviction was overturned due to DNA evidence, a mistaken eyewitness testimony led to a wrongful conviction that the Burlington Police upheld without question due to prejudice feelings toward determine Ronald Cotton (Thompson-Cannino, Cotton and Torneo 283). Ronald had his whole family testify that he had been home the night Jennifer was raped however because he had mixed up his dates when he originally confessed that police assumed he was lying despite what he and his family said. The other indication of racism on the police force was when the second rape victim did not pick Ronald Cotton out of the physical lineup; she claimed she was terrified of the black men standing in front of her and just needed to leave, even though she knew it saw Ronald that had raped her (Thompson-Cannino, Cotton and Torneo 129). Ronald was believed to be guilty and was trying to prove his innocence from the beginning. This simply cannot occur in a justice system where one is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty; racism played a part in convicting this innocent man. Even during the second court case when he was trying to prove his innocence he remembered feeling the jury turn and look at him, "every single one of their white faces" believed how terrible of a man he was (Thompson-Cannino, Cotton and Torneo
“DNA Testing and the Death Penalty.” ACLU: American Civil Liberties Union. 3 Oct. 2011. Web. 22 April 2014.
She was also given an extensive amount of time viewing the lineup physically and was for the most part hesitant until she pointed out Ronald cotton. In her mind after finally coming to the conclusion that Ronald was her rapist, his face began to become a lot clearer in her head as her rapist and she gained much more confidence in her decision. I took a course in Memory and Eyewitness Testimony and one of the cases we studied in the class was the Ronald cotton case. I found it interesting that Benforado and my other professor Dr. Hildy Schilling both said that in most cases no one is trying to set no one up, they truly do have the intention to catch the
Riley S. How familial DNA can help crime victims. The Grio [Internet]. 2010 [cited 16 May 2012]; N. page. Available from: http://www.thegrio.com/opinion/how-familial-dna-can-help-crime-victims.php.
This is exactly what happened to the wife of Bennett Barbour, when Bennett was 22-years-old he was accused of the rape of two women that were sexually assaulted at gunpoint on February 7, 1978. The victims described their attacker as a man who was 5’6” tall and 145 pounds. Within a week one of the victims picked Bennett out of a photo array and two live lineups. All three times the victim chose Bennett. At the time, Bennett was 115 pounds and he had suffered from a brittle-bone disease and had a pin in his elbow which would have made it difficult for him to commit the rape. There were hair and semen found at the scene that didn’t belong to Bennett, which proved his innocence, yet he was still arrested for the crime. Unfortunately, the eyewitness testimony trumped all the evidence that supported the fact that he was not the attacker. Regardless of all the evidence and the alibi he had provided he was convicted of the crime and sentenced to 10 years in prisons. However, Bennett served 35 years in prison and was not released from prison until May 24, 2012, when he was cleared of the rape.
The victim reported a black male of rape, but was not positive it was him. Secondly, She had
the Use of DNA Evidence to Establish Innocence After Trial. National Institute of Justice, 10, 15. Retrieved from, https://www.ncjrs.gov/
Singer, Julie A. "The Impact Of Dna And Other Technology On The Criminal Justice System: Improvements And Complications."Albany Law Journal Of Science & Technology 17.(2007): 87. LexisNexis Academic: Law Reviews. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.