Lab errors cited as top DNA profiling concern

Abstract

The potential for laboratory errors in DNA profiling is so great that it dwarfs other issues plaguing the controversial forensic technique, some experts say. But other experts dismiss the question of laboratory error rates as relatively unimportant. Some two dozen experts aired such conflicting views at a public meeting at the National Academy of Sciences, called to discuss statistical evaluation and interpretation of forensic DNA evidence. The meeting was held by the National Research Council's (NRC) Committee on DNA Forensic Science, which is preparing a report updating a 1992 NRC report on forensic DNA profiling. The 1992 report endorsed use of DNA profiling in criminal court cases, but defense attorneys have seized upon ambiguities in the report to argue that it did not endorse such use. The new panel's report, due out next summer, is meant to end such misinterpretation. The new report also is supposed to resolve a continuing controversy over how to calculate ...