HISTORY OF DNa FINGERPRINTING!!!
- DNA Fingerprinting, since it was introduced in the mid-1980s, has revolutionized forensic science and the ability of law enforcement to match perpetrators with crime scenes. Thousands of cases have been closed and innocent suspects freed with guilty ones punished because of the power of a silent biological witness at the crime scene.
- 'DNA fingerprinting' or DNA typing (profiling) as it is now known, was first described in 1985 by an English geneticist named Alec Jeffreys.
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FORENSIC DNA SCIENCE AND APPLICATION
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- Today over 150 public forensic laboratories and several dozen private paternity testing laboratories conduct hundreds of thousands of DNA test annually in the United States. In addition, most countries in Europe and Asia have forensic DNA programs. The number of laboratories around the world conducting DNA testing will continue to grow as the technique gains in popularity within the law enforcement community. [5] & [2B]
The first use of DNA testing in a forensic setting came in 1986. Two girls, Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth were sexually assualted and then brutally murdered in 1983 and 1986. Both the murders occurred in the village of Narborough in Leichestershine, with similar features leading the police to suspect that the same man had committed the crimes. the local man confessed to killing one of the girls and his blood was compared to the semen recovered from the crime scene. The man did not match evidence from either crimes!! Thus the first use of the DNA was to demonstrate the innocence of someone who might otherwise have been convicted.
A mass screen to collect blood from all adult men in three local villages was performed in the through search of the killer. over 4000 men were tested without the match. About a year later, a woman in a bar overheard someone bragging about how he had given a blood sample for a friend named Collin Pitchfork. The police interviewed Mr. Pitchfork and collected the blood sample from him, and found that his DNA profile matched semen from both the murder scenes. He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Hence DNA fingerprinting has become a sensitive and a effective tool to aid in bringing the guilty to justice and exonerating the innocent. [2B] & [10]
A mass screen to collect blood from all adult men in three local villages was performed in the through search of the killer. over 4000 men were tested without the match. About a year later, a woman in a bar overheard someone bragging about how he had given a blood sample for a friend named Collin Pitchfork. The police interviewed Mr. Pitchfork and collected the blood sample from him, and found that his DNA profile matched semen from both the murder scenes. He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Hence DNA fingerprinting has become a sensitive and a effective tool to aid in bringing the guilty to justice and exonerating the innocent. [2B] & [10]