Abstract
The sufficiency of DNA evidence alone, with regard to convicting accused persons, has been interrogated and challenged in criminal cases. The availability of offender databases and the increasing sophistication of crime scene recovery of evidence have resulted in a new type of prosecution in which the State's case focuses on match statistics to explain the significance of a match between the accused's DNA profile and the crime-scene evidence. A number of such cases have raised critical jurisprudential questions about the proper role of probabilistic evidence, and the misapprehension of match statistics by courts. This article, with reference to selected cases from specific jurisdictions, investigates the issue of DNA evidence as the exclusive basis for conviction and important factors such as primary, secondary and tertiary transfer, contamination, cold hits and match probability which can influence the reliability of basing a conviction on DNA evidence alone, are discussed.
Highlights
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) evidence is valuable in criminal cases as it assists in the investigation and prosecution of crime.[1]Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is [8] ... the genetic material that is passed from parent to child
This article, with reference to selected cases from specific jurisdictions, investigates the issue of DNA evidence as the exclusive basis for conviction and important factors such as primary, secondary and tertiary transfer, contamination, cold hits and match probability which can influence the reliability of basing a conviction on DNA evidence alone, are discussed
This match is usually expressed as a random match probability (RMP), which is a kind of measure in population genetics to measure the probability of an unrelated person, randomly picked out of the general population, matching the genotype derived from the evidence.[5]
Summary
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) evidence is valuable in criminal cases as it assists in the investigation and prosecution of crime.[1]. DNA evidence contained in biological material such as blood, semen, saliva, urine, faeces, hair, teeth, bone, tissue and cells can be used as identification evidence to establish a match between the victim or those samples that were found on the crime scene on the one hand and the suspect on the other hand This match is usually expressed as a random match probability (RMP), which is a kind of measure in population genetics to measure the probability of an unrelated person, randomly picked out of the general population, matching the genotype derived from the evidence.[5] A genotype has a number of alleles, and each allele has a frequency in a certain population.
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