Criminals Could Appeal After Home Office Admits Potentially Misleading DNA Evidence Presented to Juries

Criminals including murderers and rapists could attempt to have their convictions overturned after the Home Office admitted that potentially misleading DNA evidence was presented to juries.

The admission came five months after a leading forensic scientist warned of a series of cases in which courts were given subjective summaries of complex DNA evidence rather than direct access to solid statistics, The Times reported.

Prof Peter Gill, who raised the issue with the Home Office in April, said the recognition that subjective interpretations of DNA evidence were potentially biased and unscientific could lead to a number of appeals. “As soon as they [the Home Office] start admitting that mistakes have been made, this opens the door to appeals in other cases,” Prof Gill said.

In draft guidance issued last week, it was confirmed that during the last year criminal courts had been increasingly relying on qualitative assessments of DNA evidence. These presented a “significant risk” of juries being misled about the strength of the prosecution case.

Until last year, DNA evidence from crime scenes was typically ruled inconclusive unless...