A new article in the New York Times outlines how comparatively easy it is to falsify DNA evidence in criminal cases. DNA evidence has always been considered the “gold standard” of evidence in criminal cases. DNA recovered from crime scenes decades ago before such testing was available has been used many times to overturn convictions,and free the wrongly imprisoned and identify the true criminals.
On TV, if anyone starts talking about DNA samples, it is used as shorthand for “incontrovertible evidence”.
But new reporting explains just how easy it is for a forensic technician with a little skill to manipulate, and even manufacture false evidence. Experts claim that DNA is “much easier to plant than fingerprints”.
According to forensic scientists who analyze DNA for a living, there are at least two possible methods to create false evidence. You can capture real DNA in the form of hair, skin, or other cells, and plant it at the scene of a crime. Or it may be possible to actually manufacture false DNA, or at least DNA with deceptive markers.
It’s easy to see how this could be used in all kinds of nefarious ways. The most dramatic scenario would be that planted evidence could be used to frame an innocent person. But more simply, it’s easier to imagine planting misleading DNA samples that a defense attorney could use to establish reasonable doubt about what happened and who was there.
This really shows how important the process is in criminal cases. As the Melendez-Diaz decision has established, everyone has a right to fully evaluate and directly confront evidence against them. And it’s not just about slick defense lawyers trying to muddy the waters, it is a necessary and essential fairness in a system where every citizen is innocent until proven guilty.
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I have experienced this conduct for almost 25yrs, Ronald Trimboli is my father. My husband and I have the documentation that proves the dna in this case was not only misinterpreted but that there was no seroligical evidence that proved that a rape occurred at the time of the murders. The deceptive markers were the one main cause of argument. The evidence was new and it was given to an older jury who were just ignorant to the science! My dad is dead but the family still lives especially me with this injustice! Texas gets away with murder again! They say we have the best justice system in the world? Not for my dad and not for me, someone told me that with this at the end its just to bad we have corrupt people in it! There was only 38 possible sperm cells found in all the evidence tested including the rape kit along with a bedspread found near the body (not under)as prosecutors and appeals claim. Billie Schumway the serologist stated she wasn’t even sure if they sperm cells because there was no tails but all she could see was what was mentioned above. So how in the world could they have done a RFLP TEST in 1988?????