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November 10, 2009

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Editorial: Crime labs need better DNA controls

Monday, April 22, 2002 | 8:50 a.m.

The use of DNA testing in criminal cases has proven effective -- more than 100 people have been exonerated nationwide. And it works the other way too. A local man who for the past decade has proclaimed his innocence in a sexual assault case was found to have been rightfully convicted after DNA testing. Now we know for sure.

Or do we? Technicians conducting the tests are as prone to human error as the rest of us, as demonstrated last week when it was found by public defenders that DNA samples in a local case had been mislabeled. Sexual assault charges against the man in this case were immediately dismissed. Metro Police officials are now reviewing the paperwork in all 297 local cases in which DNA testing was used since 1997. This is the proper response. The mislabeling case shows that DNA testing, still in its infancy, needs much refinement. Wherever DNA testing is done in criminal cases, fail-safe procedures that involve checking and re-checking need to be fully developed.

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