Koehler quoted on DNA fallibility in 'Los Angeles Times'
<p>Professor <a href="http://www.law.asu.edu/Apps/Faculty/Faculty.aspx?individual_id=51264"><… color="#800080">Jay Koehler</font></a>, of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, was quoted recently in a Los Angeles Times article titled, "The danger of DNA: It isn't perfect."</p><separator></separator><p>The Dec. 26, 2008, article, by reporters Maura Dolan and Jason Felch, examines the fallibility of DNA evidence.</p><separator></separator><p>"By far the most reliable forensic science, it still has limits: Samples can be contaminated and may go untested for years. And collecting it may violate privacy laws," the article states.</p><separator></separator><p>The article describes a 2004 arrest in New Jersey in a decades-old murder of an eighth-grade girl. Two years later, investigators determined that evidence from the murder scene was contaminated with the defendant's DNA, which was being tested in the lab in a different case.</p><separator></separator><p>DNA samples can be contaminated, mislabled or switched in the lab; labs have huge backlogs of untested evidence; and debates have flared over civil rights and privacy in the collection and storage of DNA samples, according to the article.</p><separator></separator><p>Koehler, who has studied lab error, estimated the rate of false DNA matches at about 1 in 1,000, whether they are caught or missed.</p><separator></separator><p>"No one would ride on an airline that crashed one out of every 1,000 flights," he told the Times. </p><separator></separator><p>Read the entire article <font color="#800080"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dna26-2008dec26,0,1314144,full… style="font-size: 9pt; color: black; font-family: Tahoma" lang="EN">Judy Nichols, <a href="mailto:Judith.Nichols@asu.edu"><font color="#0000ff">Judith.Nichols@asu.edu</font></a><br />(480) 727-7895 <br />Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law</span></p>