Category Archives: Case Law

Supreme Court Clears Dennis Man Linked to 2009 Armed Robbery

Posted on June 25, 2018 by | Comments Off on Supreme Court Clears Dennis Man Linked to 2009 Armed Robbery

The justices held that the DNA-tolling exception applies only when the state obtains DNA evidence that directly matches the defendant to physical evidence of a crime.
Further, the court noted that in Twiggs’ case, a grand jury indicted him based primarily on Tracy’s confession and his subsequent implication of Twiggs as a co-conspirator in the armed robbery.
“There exists no direct link between the DNA extracted from the physical evidence and Twiggs.

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Posted in Case Law

Tyrone Noling case: Ohio Supreme Court rules on DNA evidence

Posted on March 7, 2018 by | Comments Off on Tyrone Noling case: Ohio Supreme Court rules on DNA evidence

CLEVELAND, Ohio – In a decision issued today, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that death row inmate Tyrone Noling can have access to only part of the powerful DNA evidence his legal team says could point to another killer.

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Posted in Case Law, DNA Legislation

National DNA database helps crack cold cases

Posted on September 2, 2014 by | Comments Off on National DNA database helps crack cold cases

Helix3For more than a decade after he broke into a Toledo home, raped and hogtied a woman who’d been asleep in her bed, Aaron Lamont Beamon got away with the violent crime.
It would take time and the nation’s massive database of DNA samples to catch up with Beamon.
Now 39, he is to be sentenced Sept. 9 in Lucas County Common Pleas Court after pleading guilty in June to rape, kidnapping, burglary, and robbery in connection with the Oct. 15, 2001, attack on the 21-year-old victim.

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Posted in Case Law, Database

Ga. bill looks to expand DNA sampling for suspects

Posted on March 11, 2014 by | Comments Off on Ga. bill looks to expand DNA sampling for suspects

Georgia cold casesAUGUSTA, Ga.–The state of Georgia could soon start collecting DNA from accused felons before they’re ever convicted of any crime. It’s part of Senate Bill 135. The DNA would go into the statewide database in hopes of solving more crimes and exonerating people serving time for crimes they didn’t commit.

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Posted in Case Law, DNA Legislation

Indiana Supreme Court rules on evidence

Posted on December 27, 2013 by | Comments Off on Indiana Supreme Court rules on evidence

Gavel2INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Supreme Court has ruled that criminal defendants aren’t entitled to question in court every person who handled evidence used against them.

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Posted in Case Law, DNA Legislation

DNA could speak for a long-dead, long-unknown L.A. baby

Posted on November 8, 2013 by | Comments Off on DNA could speak for a long-dead, long-unknown L.A. baby

Baby Jane DoeAnd here, sorrowfully, she is again. Another dead child, her name unknown for almost three decades.
Now that New York’s cold case of another long-dead, long-unknown child has been solved, Los Angeles is hoping that its anonymous little girl, Baby Jane Doe #61, found dead in 1985, might also be matched with a name, and even a family — and one day, maybe linked to whoever neglected her to death.

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Posted in Case Law

Can DNA collected off feminine hygiene product be used in court?

Posted on September 26, 2013 by | Comments Off on Can DNA collected off feminine hygiene product be used in court?

DNA and justiceLAWRENCEVILLE, Va. (WTVR) – After more than a decade the woman accused of killing and then tossing the bodies of her newborn twins down a trash chute will once again face a judge. During Thursday’s suppression hearing, the court will decide if the evidence against Darnesha Paulita Berry will be allowed at trial.

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Posted in Case Law, DNA Legislation, Forensic Industry News

Md. public defenders weighing appeals in DNA cases

Posted on August 27, 2013 by | Comments Off on Md. public defenders weighing appeals in DNA cases

Justice and DNAANNAPOLIS, Md. — The Maryland Office of the Public Defender is seriously considering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in two cases involving rape convictions where DNA analysts’ reports were used but the analysts themselves never testified.

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Posted in Case Law, DNA Legislation

DNA Leads to Arrest in Idaho Cold Case Murder

Posted on May 5, 2013 by | Comments Off on DNA Leads to Arrest in Idaho Cold Case Murder

DNA DatabaseBOISE, Idaho — For 15 years, Boise Police Detective Mark Ayotte has kept Kay Lynn Jackson’s files on his desk. He felt the unsolved murder as a heavy and constant weight.
In 1999, Ayotte told the Idaho Statesman that he had faith that DNA evidence would one day lead to her killer.
Ayotte’s DNA prophecy proved true. After more than 1,000 leads came up empty, it was a DNA “profile” that finally broke the case, police said Wednesday.

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Posted in Case Law, Database

Kentucky criminals must have access to evidence for DNA testing, Supreme Court rules

Posted on April 26, 2013 by | Comments Off on Kentucky criminals must have access to evidence for DNA testing, Supreme Court rules

GavelTwo offenders serving life sentences for murder based on “highly circumstantial evidence” should have access to evidence to conduct DNA testing that wasn’t available at the time of their trial, the Kentucky Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday.

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Posted in Case Law, DNA Legislation

Federal Court Rules Phoenix Police Officers Can Be Forced to Give DNA Samples Without Warrant

Posted on April 20, 2013 by | Comments Off on Federal Court Rules Phoenix Police Officers Can Be Forced to Give DNA Samples Without Warrant

GavelWASHINGTON, DC — Judicial Watch announced today a decision by the United States District Court for the District of Arizona dismissing a lawsuit by Phoenix police officers Daniel Bill, Bryan Hanania, and Michael Malpass, who were forced to give DNA samples in the “Death Unknown” case of slain police officer Sean Drenth.

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Posted in Case Law, DNA Legislation

D.C. Appeals Court: Defendant Had Right to Confront Forensic Scientists

Posted on April 4, 2013 by | Comments Off on D.C. Appeals Court: Defendant Had Right to Confront Forensic Scientists

JusticeDNA analysis can make or break a criminal case in a way that most other evidence can’t. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled today that under the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause, a defendant had a right to confront the forensic examiners who handled DNA evidence in his case, rather than a supervisor who was not directly involved.

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Posted in Case Law, Cold Cases

Wisconsin appeals court upholds charging unknown suspect without full DNA profile

Posted on March 27, 2013 by | Comments Off on Wisconsin appeals court upholds charging unknown suspect without full DNA profile

DNA and justiceMADISON, Wisconsin — A Wisconsin appeals court says prosecutors legally charged an unknown suspect using only DNA markers rather than a full profile.

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Posted in Case Law, DNA Legislation, Forensic Industry News

Lawyer asks judge to suppress DNA evidence in rape case

Posted on January 29, 2013 by | Comments Off on Lawyer asks judge to suppress DNA evidence in rape case

CourtA defense attorney on Monday questioned the strength of the DNA evidence that Fayette County prosecutors contend links a Lake Lynn man to a 2011 rape.

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Posted in Case Law, DNA Legislation

Judge rules DNA evidence admissible in Royal Oak murder trial

Posted on October 15, 2012 by | Comments Off on Judge rules DNA evidence admissible in Royal Oak murder trial

Oakland County Circuit Judge Colleen O’Brien has ruled that DNA evidence will be admissible in a murder trial against a man accused of brutally killing an elderly Royal Oak woman in her home last year.
Attorneys for Alan Wood, 48, filed a motion seeking to prevent Y-STR DNA evidence from being used at trial.

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Posted in Case Law, Current Cases