Exoneration of Primary Suspect After False Confession with the Help of Forensic DNA Analysis

Abstract

A confession offered in a trial is considered as the most persuasive evidence of the suspect's guilt and crime and is heavily weighted by jurors in the suspect's verdict. This fact leads to a wrongful conviction in case of a false confession. In this case, forensic DNA analysis led to the exoneration of a suspect who gave a false confession during initial police investigation. A 6-year-old male juvenile was missing and reported to the police station in Greentown of the District of Lahore on January 2, 2015. His body was found hanging in the nearby mosque with a rope around his neck. Autopsy outcomes bared that the child was brutally murdered after sexual assault. Standard reference samples of three possible suspects were collected for comparison in DNA analysis, in which one of the suspects (S1) accepted the offense during initial investigation by police. Seminal material was identified on anal swabs as well as from the swabs taken from one of the suspected stains on the floor of the crime scene using serological techniques: acid phosphatase and sperm microscopy. These samples were subjected to differential DNA extraction to separate sperm DNA of the perpetrator from the epithelial cell DNA of the victim. DNA profiles from the evidenced samples and of suspect's samples were developed using forensic DNA analysis techniques. The DNA profile of an unknown male individual was obtained from anal swabs and from a suspected stain found on the floor. It did not match initially but nominated three suspects. S1 was eliminated in this case and was exonerated due to DNA fingerprinting technology. Later on, six more suspects were submitted and their DNA profiles were generated. DNA profiles from a 12-year-old boy and S6 were matched with the DNA profile obtained as evidence of one who confessed to the crime after a polygraph.