Be sure to watch Maggs on Media this week where the making of the DNA Project crime scene project activation, funded by the Change a Life Trust,   will be aired on eNews Channel Africa (DSTV 403). Hear what Vanessa Lynch, Executive Director of The DNA Project has to say about the reason why this ad was made as well as how it was conceptualised by Fox P2, the creative genius behind the activation.

Maggs on Media will broadcast a behind the scenes look at how this amazing time lapse video was created. Tune in to eNews Channel Africa (DSTV 403) at the following times:
Sundays: 10H30 and 15H30
Monday: 23H30
Tuesday: 09H30
Thursday: 12H30
Friday: 21H30
Saturday: 16H30

Never disturb a crime scene!

If you would like to apply for a Forensic position within SAPS please read the attached document which details current Forensic Jobs on offer.

Forensic Jobs.SAPS.Sep 2012

Or click here for on line details of the various positions offered.
The closing date for applications is 5 October 2012.
For further enquiries contact: Lt Colonel Klopper, tel. (012) 421-0194 or Colonel Kannemeyer, tel. (012) 421-0485

Please take not of the following General Application Information from SAPS, if you intend to apply for one of the positions advertised:
Only the official application form (available on the SAPS website and at SAPS Recruitment Offices) will be accepted. The Z83 previously utilised will no longer be accepted.
All instructions on the application form must be adhered to and previous criminal convictions must be declared.

DNA databases have proven to be invaluable to the law enforcement community and the victims of violent crimes and their families…..

The following article first appeared in August 2012 in DNA Forensics: News and Information about DNA Databases

Mauritius Receives the CODIS Software from the FBI

Thursday, August 23, 2012: “The FBI announced plans to share the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) technology with their law enforcement partners in Mauritius. The initiative demonstrates and reaffirms the FBI’s commitment to assist international law enforcement agencies in combating violent crime. A letter of agreement will allow the Mauritius Forensic Science Laboratory to operate a DNA database, utilizing the same platform as many of its South American, Mexican, and Caribbean counterparts.

Once CODIS is installed, the Mauritius Forensic Science Laboratory will join more than 70 international laboratories that are using the software for the management of its DNA data. The CODIS system provided will have no connectivity to the U.S. National DNA database.

The FBI Laboratory sponsors CODIS as part of a technical assistance program to international law enforcement forensic laboratories. CODIS blends forensic science and computer technology into an effective tool for solving violent crimes. The software allows laboratories to store, compare, and match DNA records from offenders, crime scene evidence, unidentified human remains, and relatives of missing persons. Centralized DNA data enables law enforcement to benefit from new information in previously unrelated investigations.

In 1998 the National DNA database, known as the National DNA Index System (NDIS), was established in the United States. Currently, NDIS has over 11 million searchable profiles and has aided over 177,000 investigations.

DNA databases have proven to be invaluable to the law enforcement community and the victims of violent crimes and their families. They have been particularly helpful to investigations that are very old and no longer producing new leads. Decades ago, crimes from cold cases would have remained unsolved.

With the participation of more than 260 laboratories in over 35 countries, CODIS software has been instrumental in solving violent crimes throughout the world.”

More about CODIS

In the USA, CODIS currently consists of three distinct geographic levels: National, State, and Local.

• National DNA Index System (NDIS)
• State DNA Index System (SDIS)
• Local DNA Index System (LDIS)

NDIS is maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.). Each member state has one designated SDIS location, with each participating forensic science agency maintaining a local (LDIS) database.

Currently each CODIS database is comprised of three distinct indexes, Casework, Convicted Offender, and Population. Law enforcement agencies utilize the Casework and Convicted Offender indexes to search for matching DNA profiles. This enables State Departments of Forensic Sciences to link previously unrelated serial cases, as well as identify perpetrators in “unknown suspect” cases by searching the DNA profile of the crime scene biological evidence against the DNA profiles of previously convicted felons maintained within the Convicted Offender index.

With South Africa’s new DNA legislation currently pending final review by the Portfolio Committe on Police, we hope that the South African government will also look to implement CODIS to assist it with the efficient management of its National DNA Database. If an island as small as Mauritius with virtually no crime feels the need to implement this freely available forensic technology, what excuse do we have not to take full advantage of this opportunity too?

Vanessa

South Africa’s leading road cyclist, Robbie Hunter, has come on board as ambassador for the 2012 Change a Life Cycle Tour which has returned home to South Africa.

“Hunter will join a host of business executives to raise funds to combat crime when the tour – launched on Tuesday night – starts on September 20 which will take cyclists on a 550km ride which includes a 5km climb through the Waterberg in Limpopo.

Since its inception four years ago, the tour has travelled from the banks of the Zambezi, to the hot dusty roads of Malawi, along deserted beaches just last year in Namibia and now the event – suitably named the High Five Tour in its fifth    running – will allow the 75 cyclists to experience the mountainous region first hand.

Cyclists will leave from Pretoria Station during an opening day which will feature 120km of mostly flat road before a substantial climb over the final stretch to the Legends Golf and Safari Resort in the Waterberg. Rolling terrain, roughly 148km of it, will take the cyclists to Ellisras where they will have to revive before tackling day three which is regarded as the most challenging due to the undulating 215km ride through the bushveld to Vaalwater before returning to the Legends resort. And finally, day four involves 75km finishing off with a brutal 9km uphill time trial.

Established in 2008 in memory of Mike Thomson, a Computershare executive who was murdered at his family home in 2007, the tour hopes to raise R3.5-million this year with the funds set to benefit at least five anti-crime initiatives…”

By TAMLYN PATTERSON
JOHANNESBURG

This article first appeared in The Citizen on the 13 September 2012 .

The DNA Project is one of the five anti-crime initiatives supported by the Change a Life Trust and Vanessa Lynch attended the 2012 Launch event in Johannesburg on Tuesday, 11 September 2012 on behalf of The DNA Project.

Whilst most newspapers throughout the country are today filled with headlines such as “Lawmakers hear of sad state of SAPS detective service” and “Clueless detectives battle to take down statements”, The DNA Project was very pleased to have been invited by the Portfolio Committee on Police to a day in Parliament which focused on vital issues regarding the Detective Branch of SAPS.

Yes, the day started with all the “doom and gloom” regarding the challenges faced by detectives in South Africa. What became clear from the outset was that our detectives often lack training in the most basic of skills such as crime scene management and even computer literacy. 70% of police stations do not have sufficient detectives and their caseloads are unrealistically high. These same detectives are also under-resourced when it comes to vehicles, cell phones and computer equipment. However, the “Detective Dialogue” was not arranged to simply bemoan this sad state of affairs, but rather to identify the challenges faced by this division of SAPS and to exchange ideas on how best to move forward into the 21^st century….

I was pleased that a clear distinction was made between the forensic science divisions which fall under SAPS – which include DNA – and those that are managed by the Department of Health, for example toxicology. Commissioner Nzimande spoke of the results of a comprehensive study conducted by the Public Service Commission which found that the forensic services which fall under SAPS were generally well managed whereas those under the Department of Health are severely understaffed, are lacking in resources and are dealing with large backlogs.

Hon. Dianne Kohler Barnard, David Klatzow and many others highlighted the need for evidence to be preserved at a crime scene and the necessity for all first responders to secure the scene and not to touch or move any items of evidence before the arrival of competent crime scene investigators. Whilst Maj. Gen. Johnson clearly stated that in all major crime scenes, first responders cordon off the crime scene and wait for crime scene investigators, he did not imply that this should in fact happen at ALL crime scenes. It was proposed that all SAPS members receive a 2 week course in crime scene management during their initial 18 month training period. Of course we agree that this MUST happen.

Interestingly Dr. Johan Burger from the Institute of Security Studies stressed the need for an independent method of assessing trainers and course material. He further suggested that SAPS make use of retired detectives who could provide invaluable mentorship to young, inexperienced detectives. He also spoke about the need for SAPS to make use of private training organisations –  a proposal which was also re-emphasised by Hon. Kohler Barnard and Hon. Van Wyk who stressed the need for basic crime scene management training to be provided to ALL SAPS members.This is certainly an area where The DNA Project could make a positive contribution – we are already conducting workshops which cover the basics of crime scene preservation, how evidence should be preserved, collected and transported to the Forensic Science Laboratories – and our workshops are provided free of charge! To date we have conducted “DNA awareness workshops”for more than 16 000 people in the last 18 months.

It was distressing to note that many detectives do not receive any special training. It was suggested that promising detectives be identified following the successful completion of the SAPS basic training. The position of “detective” should be seen as a promotion within the police force.

In terms of SAPS keeping up with technology…. It is blatantly clear that they have failed miserably. This is evident from detectives lack of access to basic technology such as cell phones and computers!

It was noted that many detectives are not aware of the recently passed legislation regarding the ability of SAPS to access the fingerprint databases of Home Affairs and Transport. A lesson to be learned from this is that a concerted effort must be made to ensure the changes contained in the proposed “DNA Bill” are made clear to all SAPS members.

A session which considered violence against women and children raised some concerns for me… The use of DNA was never stressed by either of the speakers;Ms. Lisa Vetton and Maj. Gen. Botsheleng. In fact it was clearly stated that the conviction rate for “stranger” rape (where the rapists is not known to the woman or child) is exceptionally low. Furthermore, the use of fingerprints and eyewitness testimony were discussed – this I found quite bizarre as fingerprints are not routinely found on the body of a rape victim and eyewitness testimony is notoriously fallible. In most cases of sexual assault DNA is often the only form of physical evidence – evidence which is totally objective in nature – DNA evidence doesn’t lie! I was at pains to point out that it is common knowledge that 90% of rapists re-offend and that the ONLY reliable tool for identifying these repeat offenders is the through DNA and a DNA Database of previous offenders. I also stressed the importance of the proposed amendment to the legislation which will enable trained police officers to take DNA from suspects using buccal swabs. In addition I also spoke about the need for ALL police stations and hospitals to have sexual assault kits available.

A practical recommendation that was proposed was that all police vehicles contain basic items such as barrier tape, gloves, shoe covers and masks. This would go a long way towards ensuring crime scenes are secured and that the contamination and destruction of evidence is minimised.

In response to comments made by Dr.Klatzow and Maj. Gen Shezi that there was no tertiary training in forensic science, I did point out that this was not entirely correct. The postgraduate course material developed for the field of Forensic Biology was in fact developed and funded by the DNA Project in conjunction with the FSL. This qualification is now offered at a number of Tertiary Institutions throughout South Africa. It was agreed however, that the need for all disciplines in forensic science to also have such modules available remains problematic.

Jenny Irish, The Civilian Secretariat for Police in her closing remarks spoke of investigations driven by criminal intelligence. We can only hope then that the Portfolio Committee of Police recognise the urgent need to finalise the DNA Bill so that this can become a reality in South Africa.

Following yesterday’s deliberations Hon. Annelize van Wyk, the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee stated that a report will be produced with comprehensive proposals on how best to address the challenges faced by detectives. The report should be presented to the Minister of Police and the implementation of the proposed action plan should be monitored by the Ministry and not SAPS. Time will tell….

Carolyn

Watch out for our ‘Stone Project’ on DSTV in September where you will see first hand how disturbing a crime scene destroys the link to the perpetrator who committed the crime…. Read the below review on why this is such a phenomenal idea to educate the public about crime scene awareness and preservation:

FoxP2 and DNA Project get SA talking

The disturbance begins..

The DNA Project is a Cape Town- based initiative whose mission it is to raise awareness of the importance of DNA preservation at crime scenes, and in 2011 it combined forces with FoxP2 to create a TVC called ‘The Cigarette that saves lives’, which was flighted on Top TV last year, and DSTV and MNET in 2012.To support the message of the TVC and spark public debate the creative team at FoxP2 conceptualised an activation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jM08SYzvjo) to represent the loss and damage that first-on crime scene responders as well as the general public can effect to evidence left at a crime scene.  It was intended to kick start a conversation around a very serious topic that was not receiving the attention it deserved.  With impending legislation and an uninformed South African public, the objective of the campaign was to generate a conversation that would correct this, putting in motion significant exposure for The DNA Project, including interviews on talk radio stations.

Actual statistics of the campaign include:

• Total earned media: R2.6 million;
• Activation audience: 8000;
• Youtube views: 17400;
• Website hits on the day of activation: 15573 (30% increase from previous day)

The installation and accompanying viral proved highly effective in spreading the message.  The viral has over 17400 views, to go with the R2.6 million in earned media for The DNA Project. The word of mouth generated from the 8000 commuters who experienced the installation in real time, either by partaking or by witnessing the hype at the Cape Town Station, would have a lasting impact. With zero PR spend, the return on investment proves just how influential an integrated campaign of this nature can be. Vanessa Lynch, Founder of The DNA Project confirms this, “Education around crime scene preservation is a key focus for The DNA Project. FoxP2 have created three major awareness initiatives for us, all of which I believe have generated massive awareness and a knock on effect.”

The activation took place on Tuesday morning, May 15, 2012 at the Cape Town Train Station. The subsequently produced viral shows how – using time-lapse videography of the activation – the lack of proper preservation of a crime scene can destroy valuable evidence and the chance of a conviction.  The video of the activation has been posted on YouTube for public viewing.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jM08SYzvjo&feature=youtu.be

The activation consisted of a large (8m x 6m) sand box filled with tiny stones of various colours depicting a mug shot of a convict holding up an ID board.  This box was placed in the busy open hall area of the Cape Town Metrorail station.  Commuters were encouraged to walk over the box, thus blurring the mug shot and making it increasingly difficult to see the convicts’ face.  The idea got the public involved in demonstrating how disturbing a crime scene can prevent criminals from being identified. The integrated campaign’s proven success will ensure that this topic does not get swept under the carpet.

About The DNA Project:

After her father was brutally murdered in his Johannesburg home in 2004 and all traces of DNA and other forensic evidence were lost, destroyed and neglected due to the inexperience and lack of crime scene preservation awareness of the first on crime scene responders, Vanessa Lynch realised that something needed to be done to address this issue in SA and founded The DNA Project.

Based on Interpol figures South Africa has high but manageable levels of property crime but an extraordinary high level of violent crime. It is South Africa’s high level of violent crime that sets the country apart from other crime-ridden societies; this finding is supported by CIAC data indicating that since 1994 recorded violent crime has been escalating at a faster rate than any other crime category.  It is primarily violent crime that fuels people’s fear of crime. To lose its label as crime capital of the world, violent crime levels have to drop substantially in South Africa, http://www.iss.co.za/pubs/CrimeIndex/01Vol5No1/World.html, as well as have our rate of conviction dramatically increase.

Read any good books lately?

Well, if you are interested in ‘whodunnit’ type ‘CSI’ books, you will find the below article taken from the  from the New York Review of Books, fascinating. It talks directly of the book written by Brandon Garrett: “Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong,” a book published by Harvard University Press. It deals with false confessions, invalid forensic analysis, eyewitness misidentifications and other systemic flaws in the criminal justice system which contributed to the wrongful conviction of the first 250 people exonerated by DNA tests in the USA. If this is just up your alley, then settle down and read more …. I know that I for one am going to be ordering the book today! Vanessa Lynch

Let the DNA Fit the Crime by Richard C. Lewontin

Hercule Poirot has an easy time of it. He needs only the logic provided by his “little gray cells” to discern, unerringly, which of the dozen or so guests at the country house or passengers in the sleeping coach have committed the crime, nor is there any doubt that those responsible would be found guilty were a trial to be held. But what is a real-life New York investigative police officer to do when, in a city with a population of four million males, a savage rape has left its victim lying unconscious in a remote spot, permanently unable to recall any detail of the attack? One obvious direction of investigation is to connect it with some other violence that took place near the same place at around the same time.

At around 9:00 in the evening of April 19, 1989, a young woman entered Central Park near the Metropolitan Museum and headed north intent on an evening jog. At about the same time a large group of Latino and black teenagers intent on a macho adventure entered the park at its northeast corner and headed south. It seems very likely from the layout of the paths in the park that the boys’ southward route overlapped with the jogger’s northward way.

After a number of aggressive encounters with passersby including one serious beating, the group slowly broke up and five of them left the park on the west side where they were arrested by the police, to whom their behavior had been reported. Much later, at about 1:30 AM, the blood-drenched body of the raped, half-conscious Patricia Meili was discovered by two passersby not far from where two of the gang’s aggressive encounters had been reported. She has never been able to recall the details of the attack or her attackers. The police investigators made what must have seemed to them an obvious connection. The “Central Park Five” became the center of the rape investigation.

In dealing with the suspects, the police used the classic “good cop, bad cop” technique. The boys were alternately shouted at and treated sympathetically in order to get them to confess. They were promised that if they confessed they would be allowed to go home. Eventually they all confessed to having observed the rape, either from afar or having held the woman down while another member of the group actually raped her, but none admitted to the rape itself. Their stories were inconsistent with one another and with the actual condition in which the victim’s injured body was found. For example, despite her bloody condition, there were no bloodstains on any of the accused’s clothing. It seems clear that these immature boys, desperate to escape the conditions in which they were held, and perhaps reasoning that they would not, in the end, be held responsible for something they did not do, were willing to give the police what they wanted.

In this they were mistaken. In preparing for their indictment, the prosecutors arranged for a test of the DNA samples taken from Meili’s cervical swab. Only a weak pattern was found, but it did not match the DNA of any of the five defendants. On learning of the result the lead prosecutor told one of the other attorneys that “I feel I have been kicked in the stomach,” but that did not cause her to look elsewhere for the rapist. Then, in the middle of the trial, the New York Police Department’s serologist, Mary Veit, found a much larger semen stain on one of Meili’s socks and when the DNA was tested this showed conclusively that none of the defendants had left it.

Nevertheless, the prosecution persisted and, based on the confessions, convinced the jury to convict all five. They spent between six and thirteen years in prison. While the last to be released was still serving his term, he was approached by another prisoner, Matias Reyes, who confessed to being the real Central Park attacker, and whose DNA, when tested, showed him to be a serial rapist, responsible for a large number of unsolved attacks. Nevertheless, various members of the New York Police Department and the district attorney’s office continued to insist that justice had been done, that Reyes’s confession was false, and that the DNA evidence was inconclusive. Still, the convictions were vacated in 2002 and the young men have sued the city of New York for “malicious prosecution, racial discrimination, and emotional distress.” The city is contesting their lawsuit.

This case is not unique, even in its details. In 1991 in Chicago, five young men, the “Dixmoor Five,” were accused of the rape and murder of a fourteen-year-old girl and were convicted after their confessions to the police, despite exculpatory DNA evidence. Only in 2011 did the state’s attorney move to vacate the convictions on the basis of the DNA test. Three years later a prostitute was raped and strangled on the South Side of Chicago and four boys were convicted of the crime after confessing to police interrogators who promised to let them go home if they confessed. One of them describes a familiar situation:

I was 17, I’d never been in any type of trouble like that…. I didn’t know the weight or the magnitude of what a confession could do. It cost me 17 years of my life.

Only last summer, a long-belated examination of DNA evidence pointed, in fact, to a known violent sexual offender who was actually seen in the neighborhood where the body was discovered, and interviewed by the police at the time. Nevertheless, the same state’s attorney had, as of November 15, no plans to dismiss the convictions because “DNA evidence in and of itself is not always the ‘silver bullet’ that it is sometimes perceived to be.” It may not be irrelevant that the probable rapist is now dead so that his trial and conviction are impossible. The exculpation of the convicted youths would then leave the case officially and unsatisfactorily “unsolved” and the state’s attorney with one less success to support her record in office.

The increasing importance that evidence from DNA samples now has in the criminal justice system makes it essential that the general public have a reasonable understanding of the technique involved and the social and ethical issues that are raised by that methodology. For an explication of that technology and how conclusions are drawn from it, and a sophisticated discussion of the social and ethical problems that arise from its broad application, Genetic Justice is required reading. Sheldon Krimsky is chairman of the board of the Council on Responsible Genetics, and Tania Simoncelli was science adviser to the ACLU and now works for the US Food and Drug Administration.

As Krimsky and Simoncelli explain, sprinkled throughout the genome of humans are short pieces of DNA that are repeated in tandem and have no apparent physiological or developmental function (short tandem repeats, or STRs). The basic chunk is usually four nucleotides in length and is made up of some combination of the different nucleotides, adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G), and cytosine (C). There are then 256 possible chunks. One chunk might be, say, ATGG, another GATG, another CATA, etc. In one place on a particular chromosome in one person’s genome there might be three tandemly repeated chunks of a particular kind, say GATGGATGGATG, while someone else might have six repeats of this chunk. Moreover, since everyone has two examples of every chromosome, one inherited from the mother and one from the father, each person has a possibility of different repeat lengths on the two copies of the chromosome. So our hypothetical person could have three repeats on one chromosome and five repeats on the other member of the pair. A different person will have a different number of repeats of the two members of this pair, say twelve and nine.

To identify a person by his or her DNA, forensic scientists have chosen thirteen different STR sites, each on a different one of the twenty-four different chromosomes in the human genome. Each of these sites has its characteristic chunk composition, but there will be immense variation among individuals in any human population in the number of repeated chunks of each of the thirteen kinds. So, for chromosome 7, say, one person might have five repeats on the copy inherited from her father and twelve repeats on the copy inherited from her mother while another person might have inherited three copies from one parent and nine from the other.

The question then is how many people will have the same set of copy number pairs over all thirteen STR sites, since it only takes one difference to rule out someone as having been the source of DNA that has been recovered from a crime scene. Some copy numbers will be very rare in the population and some much more common. The authors give a hypothetical example in which a suspect’s sample has between four and fourteen repeats for different STRs and in which a hypothetical population corresponding roughly to what has been observed in practice has frequencies between .01 and .10 for the thirteen copy number pairs. Multiplying these thirteen frequencies gives the probability of finding by pure chance such an observed DNA type in the hypothetical population. The answer turns out to be about 5 in a billion billion! That is, the suspect’s DNA profile is for practical purposes unique. If such DNA is found at the crime scene, the suspect (or his identical twin) must have been there. Or perhaps not.

Genetic Justice begins with a true story. In 1993 a woman in Germany was strangled to death and some DNA belonging to a woman, not the victim, was found on a teacup. Eight years later, an antiques dealer in another part of Germany was found strangled and the same DNA, not hers, was recovered from items in her shop and the door handle. Then, in 2007, a German policewoman was shot from behind in her patrol car in Heilbronn and again the same DNA was retrieved. After that the same DNA was recovered from numerous crimes of a great variety.

By 2009 “Germany’s most dangerous woman” was wanted for at least forty crimes in Germany, Austria, and France. And then she was found, working in an Austrian factory that manufactured the swabs used by the police to collect DNA at crime scenes. A major problem with DNA as evidence is that we all leave it everywhere that we have been. Cells that are sloughed off our fingers, hairs that we shed, the sneeze that we spray if we do not get to our handkerchiefs in time, the traces of DNA in the saliva with which, old-fashioned as we are, we sealed the envelope of a note to a friend, all contain enough of our DNA to provide a profile to a reasonably competent professional laboratory analyst. It is not sufficient to prove guilt that enough DNA to yield a profile is found somewhere at the scene of a crime. It matters whether the DNA from a rape is found in large quantities on the victim’s underclothes or in her vagina, rather than in trace amounts on her outer garments or other belongings.

Yet another important issue raised by Krimsky and Simoncelli is the problem of technical care and competence, both in collecting samples at crime scenes and in their analysis in police laboratories. There is a great variation in the technical care and competence among various local laboratories. In New York City there is relatively careful quality control. For example, for every DNA crime sample that is analyzed there must be a control run involving a known DNA sequence; and the FBI will not report an analysis based on fewer than ten STR sites. But such ample resources and the scrupulousness of laboratory technicians are not uniform throughout the country. An independent quality control report on the Houston Police Department’s crime laboratory found that among 135 DNA cases reviewed, 43 involved serious analytic errors.

The widespread use of DNA profiles by the police has led, in a number of countries, to the establishment of national computerized data banks to which local departments can contribute and refer. These record the DNA profiles of people arrested, whether or not they have been convicted of a crime, and of DNA collected at crime scenes. In the United States the FBI manages such a database, the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), which currently contains over eight million records. CODIS, or a similar database in other countries, is used in “dragnets.” If DNA is recovered from a crime scene or taken from anyone remotely connected to a crime, it can be used to search CODIS. If there is a perfect match, a prime suspect has been identified from what is known as a “cold hit.” In case this suspect had already been imprisoned or is dead or otherwise physically removed from any possibility of having committed the crime, one must assume that a laboratory error or a contaminant during the investigation is the source. Putting aside such annoying situations, all other evidence exculpating the suspect is explained away or ignored.

A second form of dragnet does not require perfect matches in CODIS but is based on social presuppositions including racial profiling or on geographic proximity. For example, in a serial rape investigation in Miami, a dragnet by Florida officials asked more than 120 Hispanic males to provide DNA samples, and in Ann Arbor, Michigan, police asked more than 600 black men to submit to DNA testing in another serial rape case, of whom 160 agreed. The latter example exemplifies an important issue in civil liberties and the legality of searches and seizures. The police chief in Ann Arbor threatened that anyone who refused to submit a sample would become an active suspect in the case.

While the probability of finding two unrelated people with the same complete thirteen-site DNA profile is essentially zero, close relatives may have the same profile for part of the thirteen sites. This creates the possibility of “familial searches” for relatives of the actual criminal who might then lead to a final resolution of the case. While only identical twins have identical profiles, full siblings will share, on the average, half of their alleles, as will a parent and offspring, while cousins will share a quarter. Once a group of likely relatives of the guilty person has been identified, the police may then narrow down their search sufficiently to use other information in their search.

Partial-match dragnets and familial searches raise serious issues of civil rights. Both involve taking DNA from the bodies or secretions of persons who have not voluntarily come forward with an offer of their saliva or blood. In many cases a great deal of pressure must be applied in the form of threats against people who have not themselves been charged with any crime, as in the Ann Arbor case, or else there may be surreptitious sampling of objects in their possession. For Krimsky and Simoncelli these are all forms of searches and seizures without legal warrant that are forbidden by the Fourth Amendment. If the police cannot enter my house and search through or seize the physical objects contained in it without a legally obtained warrant, surely my body must be so protected. There is even the question of whether the cells and hair that I shed, the saliva that I deposit on the flap of an envelope, and the feces that I eject are “abandoned” materials and therefore are freely available to investigative authorities (or anyone else who cares to have them). Thus far, the courts have held them to be so, although it is unclear how the judges would proceed against persons who wished to maintain their proprietary rights.

While DNA analysis has become a major tool for the apprehension and conviction of people who have committed acts of violence, it has also led to the exoneration of those who were falsely accused. Krimsky and Simoncelli have both been deeply involved in the struggle to exonerate the innocent. Their book, as might be expected of them, contains chapters on such topics as “Privacy and Genetic Surveillance,” “Racial Disparities in DNA Data Banking,” and “Toward a Vision of Justice: Principles for the Responsible Uses of DNA in Law Enforcement.”

Having read the last chapters of Genetic Justice, one should then turn to Convicting the Innocent by Brandon Garrett, a book devoted to the deliberate use of DNA primarily as a tool for exonerating and freeing those who, for whatever reason, have been falsely convicted and punished. Garrett’s book arises from his longtime association with Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, founders and directors of the Innocence Project, whose purpose is to overturn false convictions through the use of DNA evidence. As of this year more than 250 people, convicted of a variety of serious crimes, have been exonerated by the use of DNA, many of them after years in prison and even the threat of execution.

One of the ironies of that history is that Scheck and Neufeld, together with the author of this review, originally opposed the use of DNA evidence. That is because, in its early stages, DNA identification used DNA variants that differed very much among ethnic and racial groups in their relative proportions. An example was the murder, in a trailer park in northern Vermont, of an Abenaki Indian woman. About a third of the residents of the trailer park were Abenaki in a region with many Abenaki. They have proportions of the various DNA variants that are quite different from Caucasians. An accused Abenaki had DNA that matched blood from the crime scene, but the trailer park is on a main north–south tourist route. So whose population frequencies should have been used in making a case?

All that has changed now. The differences in proportions of the DNA variations currently used in forensic analysis make only a trivial difference in conclusions about incrimination. The Innocence Project can exculpate people beyond any reasonable doubt without having to make arguments about ethnic group differences.

Garrett has chosen to illustrate the various sources of injustice in prosecuting and convicting innocent people. These include false confessions extorted by extreme psychological pressure on vulnerable people who are promised relief (as with the Central Park Five, among many others); misidentification by eyewitnesses who are themselves under police pressure; eyewitness identification from carefully stacked lineups and subject to police management; flawed forensic tests that include hair matching, shoeprints, fingerprints, and voice matching; and out-and-out lying by witnesses or jail informants who have something to gain by making things up.

A uniquely valuable part of Garrett’s book is a statistical appendix that provides a quantitative overview of the false convictions, their consequences, and the factors that contributed to them. For example, 47 percent of exonerations occurred between sixteen and thirty-five years after the original convictions. Of those exonerated, 62 percent were black, and 89 percent were accused of rape. In 74 percent of cases forensic evidence was presented against them and 76 percent of convictions were backed up by eyewitnesses. It is hard to imagine seven pages more damaging to the claims of our system of criminal justice, a system in which careerism is deeply embedded.

In a recent issue of The New York Times Magazine a leading state’s attorney for Lake County, near Chicago, when asked by a reporter for The Chicago Tribune about what seemed to be contradictions in a case, is quoted as replying: “The taxpayers don’t pay us for intellectual curiosity. They pay us to get convictions.” I was immediately reminded of Floria Tosca’s words as she contemplated the fallen police chief Scarpia: “Avanti a lui tremava tutta Roma.” Before such prosecutors all America must tremble.

1 For a remarkable essay that places this set of events and the reactions to it in the social and ideological milieu of New York see Joan Didion’s discussion in ” New York: Sentimental Journeys ,” The New York Review , January 17, 1991. Sarah Burns does not mention this brilliant article, which subjected evidence to skeptical analysis and anticipated later revelations. ↩

2 Erica Goode, “When DNA Evidence Suggests ‘Innocent,’ Some Prosecutors Cling to ‘Maybe,'” The New York Times , November 16, 2011. ↩

This article appeared on the LeadSA website

SABC 3 presenter Liezel van der Westhuizen will be teaming up with SA road race champion Robbie Hunter for the 2012 High Five Change a Life Cycle Tour.

About Change a Life Cycle Tour

The annual Change a Life Cycle Tour is the Trust’s main fundraising event – and for those who have participated before it represents both a personal life-changing experience and an opportunity to contribute to the Change a Life projects. It is attended by approximately 75 of South Africa’s leading corporate executives and sports personalities, while SA road race champion Robbie Hunter and Liezel van der Westhuizen have agreed to fly the flag as Change a Life ambassadors.

Who benefits

One of the first projects to receive funding from Change a Life was the DNA Project which advances the use of DNA evidence in bringing criminals to justice. Under the guidance of its founder, Vanessa Lynch, the project has been instrumental in raising awareness and teaching the police and other related groups how to preserve and collect DNA at crime scenes. Vanessa, who left a career in law to work full-time on the DNA Project after her father was murdered, has also lobbied for and supported the introduction of new legislation to govern the use of DNA in crime detection.

The iChoose to Change a Life project provides leadership training to teenage offenders so that they are empowered to walk away from crime and to become respected role models in their own communities.  Carol Podetti-Ngono, the inspirational founder of the Valued Citizens Initiative which drives iChoose to Change a Life introduced the Stand against Crime initiative in South African schools in 2011 to create crime-free school communities. The initiative reaches hundreds of thousands of children and has been highly effective in channelling their energy into crime prevention initiatives.

The remaining three projects all use sport as a primary vehicle to transform the lives of severely disadvantaged young people. The Martin Dreyer Change a Life Academy trains youngsters in rural KwaZulu Natal to become professional athletes, the Allan Thomson Kushido Karate-do inspires children from Drummond and Cosmo City in Gauteng to become productive members of society through the discipline and power of karate, while Nemato Change a Life gives disadvantaged youths in the townships of Port Alfred the mind-set, skills, knowledge and support to become successful in life.

Each of these projects is run by a powerful role model who has achieved success in their own lives and wants to give back to society: Martin Dreyer is a seven-time Dusi Marathon winner and his young beneficiaries can be seen competing for the top positions in the Dusi each year; Allan Thomson holds a black belt in karate and wants to build something positive out of his brother Mike’s tragic death; Jan Blom at Nemato Change a Life has coached Olympic and university rowers in Holland and South Africa and is creating new lives for children who would otherwise face a hopeless future.

The 2012 High Five Tour

The 2012 Cycle Tour takes place on 20 – 25 September and is called the High Five tour in recognition of five years of existence. Having been located in a number of southern African locations in previous years, the tour returns to South Africa this year and will take cyclists on an epic journey through the Waterberg, where they will cycle approximately 550 kms over four days – climbing about 5 000 metres – and experience the thrill of South Africa’s Big Five, the romance of the bushveld and a dramatic twist at the finale.

On 20 September, cyclists will depart on Rovos Rail from Pretoria Station to Pienaars River Station at Carousal. Day 1 of cycling will cover 120 kms of mostly flat road with a sturdy climb over the final 20 km stretch to our destination, the Legend Golf and Safari Resort in the Waterberg. Day 2 will cover 148 kms of undulating terrain to Ellisras and Day 3 offers the greatest challenge with a 215 km undulating ride through bushveld to Vaal water and then back to the Legend resort. Day 4 involves 75 kms, finishing off with a gruelling 9 km uphill time trial, but the spectacular gala dinner at the finale will soothe any the aching limbs anand bruised egos, as will the sense that something truly good will come from their efforts.

We are often asked whether identical twins would be able to get away with committing a crime because their DNA is identical… well here is a case in point:

Saved by their indistinguishable DNA, identical twins suspected in a massive jewelry heist were set free because neither of them could be exclusively linked to the DNA evidence.

It’s what many movies are made of: the perfect crime.

Identical twins Hassan and Abbas O., charged in a spectacular multimillion-dollar jewelry heist in Germany, were set free because their genetic information is identical which means that traces of DNA found at the crime scene failed to provide conclusive evidence for trial.

In the early morning hours of Sunday, Jan. 25 2009, thieves managed to break into Berlin’s famous, luxury department store Kaufhaus des Westens, universally known as KaDeWe, stealing fine jewelry and pricey watches worth $6.5 million.

Surveillance cameras taped three masked men wearing gloves sliding down a rope from a store skylight, evading motion detectors and outsmarting the store’s security system.

The bandits got away that night but left evidence behind: DNA, found in a trace of sweat after police secured a discarded rubber glove at the crime scene.

Investigators ran the material through the German criminal database and came up with the twins Hassan and Abbas O., who both have criminal records for theft and fraud. They cannot be named in full, under German law, which prohibits such suspects from being identified until they are convicted.

The 27-year-old brothers, who live in the northern German state of Lower Saxony, were arrested two weeks after the high-profile incident with police suspecting that at least one of them took part in the theft.

By the end of the week, however, they were released before the case could ever come to trial after confusion over which one of them was the alleged culprit.

DNA Evidence Clouding the Case

“From the evidence we have, we can deduce that at least one of the brothers took part in the crime,” the court wrote in a statement, “but it has not been possible to determine which one.”

When police found traces of DNA on a glove left at the scene of the crime, it seemed that the criminals responsible for Germany’s most spectacular heist in years would be caught. But the DNA led to not one but two suspects — 27-year-old identical, or monozygotic, twins with identical DNA.

German law stipulates that each criminal must be individually proven guilty. The problem in the case of the O. brothers was that their twin DNA is so similar that neither could be exclusively linked to the evidence using current methods of DNA analysis. So even though both have criminal records and may have committed the heist together, Hassan and Abbas O. were set free.

Both brothers stolidly refused to comment and since no further evidence has become available, police cannot detain them. According to the daily Berlin newspaper, the twins sent a message that they were “proud of the German constitutional state and gave it their thanks.”

There is still no trace of a third suspect — or the loot!

The overarching objective of Mandela Day is to inspire individuals to take action to help change the world for the better, and in doing so build a global movement for good. Ultimately it seeks to empower communities everywhere. “Take Action; Inspire Change; Make Every Day a Mandela Day.”

The ability to make changes is in our hands

Make the change: Become a Mandela Day Change-maker

Change was the gift given to all South Africans by Nelson Mandela. Now it’s YOUR turn. In the spirit of Madiba and his vision to spread justice and freedom for all, this is your chance to step up to the plate and become a part of a continuous global movement for good. By becoming a Mandela Day Change-maker you can show that actions speak louder than words by giving to make a positive change to this country. If you don’t have the time to give back, then consider giving R67 to The DNA Project to be a Change-maker: if 1,000 people give R67 each we can raise R67 000 which will provide 84 communities with a free DNA Awareness workshop. How will this be giving back to the greater good of South Africa? Well, for every additional person who can be taught about the importance of preserving crime scene evidence at a crime scene, which will enable Crime Scene Investigators to positively link the perpetrators to the crime, we can ensure that criminals are held accountable for their actions and prevented from committing further crimes, making our society a safer, better place to live.

How do I donate my R67?
Its easy, click here or on the PayPal button

and simply follow the instructions.

Mandela Day is a celebration of our collective power to do good and make an imprint on the world. You can add to the initiative’s momentum by telling as many people as possible about it. Use your own network of friends, media connections, corporates and organisations to get involved and make a difference.

Thank you for your support.