Science in court: DNA's identity crisis
By Natasha Gilbert,
Nature
| 03. 17. 2010
When Peter Hoe was found stabbed to death in his home in North
Yorkshire, UK, in the afternoon of 13 October 2006, investigators were
able to connect the murder to brothers Terence and David Reed on the
basis of a small amount of DNA lifted from shards of plastic found near
the body. The men were convicted the next year.
But an appeal to the ruling heard in 2009 raised questions about the
reliability and interpretation of DNA profiles drawn from very small
amounts of genetic material, a technique known as low-copy-number
analysis. In the appeal, the Reeds' lawyers argued that Valerie
Tomlinson, an officer involved in the analysis at the Forensic Science
Service (FSS) based in Birmingham, UK, had overstepped her bounds by
speculating how the men's DNA came to be on the pieces of plastic —
thought to have broken off two knife handles. The appeal failed last
December, but a larger question looms about how suspects can be fingered
from such a small amount of DNA.
The case is one of the most recent public airings of...
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