(743 words) Witness examination for DNA expert witness (Ambra ASTOLFI) / Case Study 6 You are Ambra ASTOLFI employed as a forensic scientist at Queensland Health Pathology and Scientific Services. Correct? Leading questions are common technique to cross-examine witness. You are called to give instruction and share your experience regarding to the DNA profile you have written and signed on 28 April 2016. It includes your opinion for the examination results of the items from the case study 6. This examination is purported to test the accuracy of your opinion and to provide relevant facts of the result for the trial. Do you understand that? Expert opinion in the court is required when the juries need assistance of an expert with special …show more content…
How long are you experienced in DNA profiling, and how often do you perform such DNA analysing experiment? These questions are suggested to determine whether the expert’s opinion is admissible as the expert evidence is based on established field of expertise. By asking if the expert has received special academic experience and had relevant time of experience or observation in DNA analysis which is relevant to the case, the court will consider if the expert opinion is sufficient to gain general acceptance in the DNA profiling area and if it is admissible to take the expert’s opinion regarding to the case. Also, the expert must be qualified in the certain field of expertise to give evidence. As the qualification can be derived from relevant experience and observation, it is required to ask whether the expert has frequent relevant experience or observation in the DNA analysis in related to criminal cases. If the expert opinion is based on any factual platform such as testamentary capacity, unpersuasive report based on lies or absence of evidence relating to the samples collected, the evidence would be rejected to be taken to the court and the conviction could be …show more content…
About the exclusion ratio of 5%, how much extent could you be sure that the blood came from the victim? The DNA result regarding the blood found on the floor passenger compartment does not provide any statistical analysis. In other words, you do not have any scientific reason to indicate the blood belongs to the victim. Correct? The evidence is adverse to the accused, and it could possibly lead to an unfairly prejudicial conclusion against the accused by misleading or confusing the juries. Also, as there is no statistical analysis to prove that the blood on the floor belongs to the victim, the evidence should not be used against the accused to convict him in this case. In addition, the victim’s blood found in the accused’s car would not be ideal to be used to directly prove his guilt in the death, because there is reasonable doubt that the blood left on the car was left from the argument at the station or other possible
In Paredes, at the trial court, a DNA analyst who did not perform the DNA test testified as to her conclusions based on a computer-generated report. Id. In this
Mainly in criminal act scene investigation, fingerprint machinery progressions have been responding to with arms open. The theory of biological exclusivity has been urbanized and substantiated by erudition and the judges have maintained this authenticity in the case of Daubert. Although the threat of inaccurate condemnation offers equally to ethical and feasible viewpoint on why dependable and legitimate forensic science is so significant, normal expert substantiation creed also dictates its legitimacy as a precondition for tolerability. Also in 1993 Daubert v. Merrell Dow made it unblemished that adjudicators have a gatekeeping answerability with admiration to expert substantiation. Federal courts as well as the states have comprised Daubert,
Identify each person whom you expect to call as an expert witness at trial, state the subject matter on which the expert is expected to testify, state the substance of the findings and opinions to which the expert is expected to testify and a summary of the grounds for each opinion, and, with respect to an expert whose findings and opinions were acquired in anticipation of litigation or for trial, summarize the qualifications of the expert, state the terms of the expert 's compensation, and attach to your answers any available list of publications written by the expert and any written report made by the expert concerning the expert 's findings and opinions. (Standard General Interrogatory No. 2.)
Contamination can occur when transferring DNA or the collection of DNA evidence. In the case involving Mr. Farah, he was wrongful charged of rape although he had appealed in the High Court with the basis of the scientists not having said he was undisputedly the perpetrator. The scientists said that it was a very small chance that it was not Mr. Farah which he argued was still a reasonable doubt. The judges dismissed the case within twenty minutes but it was later found that the evidence was contaminated. Other examples include R v. Rendell (1999) and R v. Carroll (2002.)Though technology is advancing, the process of collecting, processing and analyzing DNA has faults. There needs to be more training, procedures and checks put in place for the system to be effective. Faults in evidence presents to be ineffective justice as although the jury weighed up the evidence, there was inadequate access to allow him to refute the claims and lead to wrongful convictions.
The DNA Identification Act of 1993 was formerly known as the Omnibus Crime control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. Under the new act forensic laboratories are authorized to analyze DNA for identification purposes that are retrieved from crime scenes. With the regulations of the act the Federal Bureau of Investigation is obligated to follow standards such as setting standards for testing and issuing an advisory board to supervise the standards for quality assurance. Of the results under the act records are established of persons convicted of crimes, samples recovered from crime scenes, and samples from unidentified human remains.
This report is crucial to the research because it analysis types of DNA testing and which is beneficial. In addition, these guidelines are examples of how every aspect of the judicial system which
DNA technology has been used as a means to identify perpetrators of rapes and murders with a very high degree of reliability. However, interpretation of the evidence can be problematic at times. This problem comes into play when there are mixed sample’s, partial profiles and with contamination of the evidence submitted. Mixed samples
Today in the crime world, DNA evidence is strongly accepted in solving crime cases. This is all based in part by allowing a crime laboratory to have a designated unit whose main goal is to analyze DNA evidence to aid investigators with positive outcomes in crime case solving. With that being said we are going to discuss the functions of a DNA unit within a crime lab as well as address the vital role these units play in solving crime.
Throughout the course of the investigation, the blood evidence found inside the van was not Hartlaub's. Enzymes from the blood spatter, which is only
I. Before the 1980’s, courts relied on testimony and eyewitness accounts as a main source of evidence. Notoriously unreliable, these techniques have since faded away to the stunning reliability of DNA forensics.
Considered one of the most reliable forms of evidence, in many criminal cases in DNA evidence. Since the 1980s, DNA analysis has continued to make steady progress as an adjunct to police investigations. DNA can be collected from blood, hair, skin cells, and other bodily substances. Similar to fingerprints, each individual has a unique DNA profile, but unlike that of fingerprints, only a miniscule amount of genetic material is needed to identify or eliminate suspects. However, the reliability and accuracy of the use of DNA evidence in criminal trials in Australia is constantly being challenged. It raises the question as to whether or not the justice system has been placing too much faith in DNA evidence. Although it has the power to put criminals behind bars, over confidence and careless mistakes in the use of DNA evidence can lead to miscarriages of justice.
“In 1984, a British geneticist named Alec Jeffreys stumbled upon one of our most important forensic tools: DNA fingerprinting. Since his “eureka moment,” the scientific technique has been used successfully to identify perpetrators of a crime, clarify paternity and exonerate people wrongly convicted” (Jones). DNA evidence, specifically simple-mixture, is the most accurate type of forensic evidence we currently have at our disposal, but even it is not infallible. Other types of forensic evidence are much less accurate, but unfortunately their use is still permitted in U.S courtrooms. Jurors may be misled by experts within the courtroom as well. These misconceptions about the accuracy of forensic science and the field in general lead to many problems in the courtroom.
The use of experts within the tribunal system is exploited to a greater extent in tribunals; Doctors Chartered Surveyors and other professional experts can be called to give their opinion on certain forms of evidence. This is the same typically in the court system but in tribunals the Chairperson can ask questions themselves and ask for opinions, in the courts the
She focused on providing to give persons credit for,that they should know how the DNA knowing the significance of its identification, collection and preservation at the crime scene is critical in obtaining accurate test outgrowth. Anyways, she also established report for the clarifying conclusions of DNA analysis, and she stated that there are three types of results that can occur in the DNA testing, the inclusion, exclusion, and inconclusive. Inclusion, when the DNA profile of a known individual (a victim or suspect) matches the DNA profile from the crime scene evidence, the individual is "included" as a capable of becoming real source of that evidence. While the exclusion, when the DNA profile from an individual (a victim or suspect) does not match the DNA profile bring about from the crime scene evidence, the referenced individual is "excluded" as the patron of the evidence. Lastly, the inconclusive results, exemplify that the DNA testing did not yieldthe corollaryinformation that would allow a individual to be either included or excluded of the biological evidence that provides what is wanted or
This paper explores deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) collection and its relationship to solving crimes. The collection of DNA is one of the most important steps in identifying a suspect in a crime. DNA evidence can either convict or exonerate an individual of a crime. Furthermore, the accuracy of forensic identification of evidence has the possibility of leaving biased effects on a juror (Carrell, Krauss, Liberman, Miethe, 2008). This paper examines Carrells et al’s research along with three other research articles to review how DNA is collected, the effects that is has on a juror and the pros and cons of DNA collection in the Forensic Science and Criminal Justice community.