More From the Los Angeles Times on DNA Databases
Over the weekend, the Los Angeles Times published another article on what has become an intriguing series questioning the long held belief that matches made in DNA databases uniquely identify perpetrators with an extraordinarily high level of certainty – often expressed to juries as one in several billion.
This installment draws attention to the efforts taken by the FBI to keep such scrutiny under wraps through a variety of arguments and tactics designed to maintain DNA forensics’ presumption of infallibility. This is largely being done by limiting the exposure of federal and state databases to outside researchers and attorneys trying to figure out the likelihood that two people might share the same genetic profile and thus the possibility that these technologies may be unwittingly used to convict innocent people. While much research remains to be done, one thing is certain: forensic science cannot be credible unless its methodologies and assumptions are open to independent review.
Click here for the LA Times’ previous installment on this topic.