DNA Test Jailed Innocent Man for Murder
By Hannah Barnes,
BBC News
| 08. 31. 2012
Scientists, lawyers and politicians have raised new concerns over the quality of forensic evidence testing - so is the criminal justice system too reliant on lab tests without realising their limitations?
"There was a knock at the door, in the early hours of the morning, saying I was being arrested for murder. I asked, 'what evidence have you got?' and they said they thought it was my DNA.
"I thought 'I'll prove I'm not a suspect' but it didn't pan out that way. DNA has become the magic bullet for the police... they thought it was my DNA, ergo it must be me."
David Butler has every right to be cynical about the use of DNA evidence by the police. He spent eight months in prison, on remand, facing murder charges after his DNA was allegedly found on the victim.
"That was when Alice fell down the hole. Everything went upside down. My whole life changed overnight," he told Radio 4's The Report.
"It was hard. The loneliness was the worst, not speaking to your family. I've led a...
Related Articles
By Anna Collinson and Jo Adnitt, BBC | 08.18.2026
At least 30 children, most of them British, are feared to have been conceived by IVF treatment in northern Cyprus using the wrong sperm or egg donors.
In each case, the parents suspect they did not get the donors they...
What We Inherit by Sam Trejo and Daphne O. Martschenko; and Original Sin by Kathryn Paige Harden have a great deal in common, with substantial differences in style and emphasis. Both books attempt, in different ways, to show the reader just where current research into human genomics stands, where that might be going, and why the authors are interested. In short, the influence of genomic research on our societies is already large and seems likely to change them in ways...
By Dan Falk, Nautilus | 08.20.2026
The pseudoscience of eugenics, founded on the mistaken notion that nature envisions some “right” combination of genes, and that selective breeding can improve the human race, is making a comeback. While the heyday of eugenics was a century ago, the...
By Emily Packard Dawson and Lainie Friedman Ross, MedPage Today | 08.18.2026
Few things evoke a greater sense of desperation than a parent seeking an experimental treatment for their child. That desperation can make even extraordinary risks seem worth taking. This dynamic has come into stark relief after Mei, a 6-year-old girl...
