I see that another murderer has been identified and convicted on DNA evidence after 27 years. It has often been suggested many times on here, that a DNA data base should not be allowed as it conflicts with people's civil liberties. And of course there is always the possibility of abuse by conniving governments, politicians or civil servants, including the not so civil police.
Our progress on the road from small hunter/gatherer society to modern civilised society, over the past 10 000 years, has always had to contend with inhibiting the criminal conduct of some of societies more deviant members. The bigger the nation state became, the greater was the need to introduce more methods and rules to control the criminal element. This has always led to concerns about the limiting of individual freedoms that a free society should have.
Technology has always provided deviant individuals with the additional means to carry out their various crimes, but at the same time, it has also provided those we appoint to protect us from the waywardness of criminal individuals, with better means of protection and apprehension such as, fingerprints, blood tests and DNA.
Technology has of course introduced other fears into society, such as the prohibitions by the Christian churches on scientists, such as Galileo. And then there were the famous red flag legislations to control first the speed of steam locomotives and then the speed of motor cars. Eventually common sense prevailed and these prohibitions were dispensed with.
Now of course society tends to split on how to manage many of these newer technologies e.g. nuclear energy, IVF and cloning being just a few. If however, one looks back in history, one will note that many of the technologies which were feared by our ancestors, don't even warrant a thought by the younger and more modern generations.
Here are a few of the more recent DNA criminal cases.
Father of three convicted of first Crimewatch murder 26 years on... thanks to his son's DNA.
A father of four yesterday admitted the abduction and murder of a teenager 26 years ago. The case of Colette Aram, whose naked body was dumped in a field in October 1983, was the first killing to feature on BBC's Crimewatch. But it was not until this April that Paul Hutchinson was arrested after being trapped by DNA taken from his son.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1237493/Father-admits-1983-sex-killing-16-year-old-hairdresser-Colette-Aram.html#ixzz0dhJIsJiC
A man who served two-and-a-half years in prison after being convicted of raping a 15-year-old girl has walked free from court in Edinburgh.
A previous trial heard that Desmond Uttley, 35, had found the girl collapsed in the street after sharing a bottle of cider with a 14-year-old boy. The girl claimed she had later woken up to find Uttley having sex with her. But appeal judges quashed the conviction after new DNA tests showed he had not had sex with the girl.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8418369.stm
Prisoner has murder conviction quashed after 27 years
Appeal court corrects miscarriage of justice as new DNA evidence quashes Sean Hodgson's conviction for rape and strangling of barmaid Teresa de Simone in 1979.A man who spent almost three decades in prison for crimes he did not commit had his conviction for rape and murder quashed by the court of appeal today thanks to a DNA analysis that could have established his innocence a decade ago.http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/mar/18/prisoner-hodgson-murder-quashed-miscarriage
Rape conviction 'backs DNA case'
A rapist jailed 19 years after his crime might never have been caught if time limits on DNA retention had been in place, it is claimed. Under the latest proposal the DNA of people arrested but not convicted should only be held for six years. Last year, William Bates was convicted of raping a woman in a Sunderland park in 1990, after he was traced using DNA taken in an arrest for assault in 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8354817.stm
Post-Conviction DNA Analysis
For some individuals, however, the post-conviction release has been a bittersweet one given that decades have already been spent behind bars. Still, these cases highlight the value and importance of DNA analysis that occurs after a person has already been convicted of a crime. Most of the post-conviction DNA analysis has occurred in the United States. Since the late 1980s, there have been more than two hundred people exonerated as a result of DNA evidence.
http://www.exploredna.co.uk/post-conviction-dna-analysis.html
DNA – conviction and freedom
Happily, DNA evidence in England now seems to be fairing much better after the suspension of Low Copy Number DNA evidence in 2008 following the spectacular collapse of a major trial against a man charged with one of Northern Ireland’s worse bombings – the Omagh bomb in 1998 (DNA test halted after Omagh case).
A man was recently cleared of rape (after he’d been sentenced in 2002 to six years’ imprisonment) as the result of DNA evidence that showed he had not penetrated the victim but that there was evidence of the DNA of three other males on the swabs from the complainant and another man was convicted after a random “hit” on the DNA database. http://forensicscientist.wordpress.com/2009/12/12/dna-conviction-and-freedom/
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