Reforming Criminal Law, Exposing Junk Forensic Science

This is wisdom, listen up. Don't raid the fridge when you break into somebody's home. The cops will find your DNA on unfinished food and then CODIS will find you. Next thing you know, you're rotting in prison, just like the "honey bun bandit." You'll never hear fatherly advice like this from Paul Ferrara--too bad for B&E men (that's breaking and entering, to you). The conviction carried by his warm baritone and clear and sober eyes might make a young punk listen. But instead, the director o

Written byTom Hollon

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You'll never hear fatherly advice like this from Paul Ferrara--too bad for B&E men (that's breaking and entering, to you). The conviction carried by his warm baritone and clear and sober eyes might make a young punk listen. But instead, the director of forensic science at Virginia's Institute for Forensic Science and Medicine gets a laugh by telling how "honey bun" was nailed by DNA from his own sweet lips. A little humor helps make a serious point: DNA forensics databases have put hundreds of criminals in prison who otherwise would be free to roam the streets.

Joining Ferrara recently at a symposium on DNA and justice sponsored by the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Mass., and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think tank, Barry Scheck underscored the point from a different perspective. "Each time an innocent person is arrested, indicted, convicted, or God ...

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