Is The Duke Rape Story Unraveling?

Yahoo ^ | 04/12/06 | Tom Bevan

[Alia]

It's scary to see how many people ended up losing everything, living in prison and some are still there because a psychologist was able to find these "repressed" memories.

Yes. It was hidious. Basically abusing the innocence of children, and sometimes coaching them, in order to get a conviction.

In re DNA, did you catch this?

How about this for situational hypocrisy ?

Barry Scheck and Peter Nuefeld ( of the OJ Dream Team ) founded Project Innocence. They use DNA evidence to free wrongly convicted rapists and murderers. DNA is their touchstone , unless one plays lacrosse for Duke.

" However, Peter Neufeld, co-founder of The Innocence Project, which focuses on DNA as a way to clear wrongly convicted defendants, says a condom could have been used. And he said that in rape cases, "there is an expectation of DNA but, like many expectations, often it is misplaced."

"The truth is," said Neufeld, "if you speak to crime lab directors, they will tell you that in only a relatively small number of cases is there any DNA evidence."

I wonder if they defend pedophiles.

[Brytani]

Yea, I saw his comment about that and have spent hours searching through my forensic textbooks, criminology textbooks, forensic sites online, justice department states etc and can find nothing to back this up.

All I can assume is this. When a woman is rapes and seeks medical attention within hours of the attack, there is much more of a chance of detecting genetic material that will render DNA.

Women who wait days/weeks to report a rape or are held hostage for long periods of time without subsequent rape, will probably not have biological material still on their person. Especially if they have showered, washed and/or threw out the clothes they were wearing.

If anyone finds statistics on the number of rape cases that DNA evidence is not found, I'd love to see it. Especially in this day and age where juries want DNA for everything!!!

[Alia]

If anyone finds statistics on the number of rape cases that DNA evidence is not found, I'd love to see it. Especially in this day and age where juries want DNA for everything!!!

Ha. I went looking too. Didn't find anything. Mostly what I've found is "over-wordy verbiage" as to why the "victim" doesn't have DNA on themselves. Isn't that interesting -- no stats on this. The left loves to keep stats. Why don't they have these stats handy and available. Hmm...

They love DNA in cases releasing prisoners; hate DNA when it comes to forcing fathers to pay for children they didn't father, and ..

[Brytani]

I'm mixed on my opinion on using DNA to release prisoners.

DNA is a double-edged sword. If we use DNA to convict, and rightfully so, those where we have a a DNA match, we can't use it when there is biological evidence but the DNA doesn't match the accussed.

Most of the cases we've heard when DNA has been used to release someone from prison all comes from older cases where a full DNA profile could not be extracted from the sample at hand, or the crime took place prior to DNA extraction.

Can we really say a person is guilty when we have a DNA match but is also guilty when there is DNA but it doesn't match the accussed? Personally I don't think so.

Like in this case, we've got a DA saying even if DNA had been found, that didn't match the athletes, the results didn't matter. Well that's bull$hit. You can't use DNA to prosecute someone in one rape case and not use it in the other because the results do not fit the DA's theory of the crime.

From my experience, I can not believe that a woman who presents herself into an ER within hours of a supposed attack would not yield some biological evidence to back up her claim of rape.

Then we have her fingernails. She claims to have used them as a defensive weapon while she was being strangled. No skin cells, no biological material under her intact nails or the nails she left at the scene. I'm believing this as much as I believe Santa is coming down my chimney tonight and giving me the winning lottery numbers.

If she had waited for days/weeks obviously nothing would have been found on her however, it's very possible evidence would have been detected in the room she was supposedly attack in.

If anyone finds stats to back up claim that a majority of rape cases do not yield DNA I want to see them. It would be a PERFECT dissertation for me to work on for my masters.

[Alia]

I would love to find those stats. I would then love to supply them to you. And I would very much then like to read your dissertation.

I'll be keeping my eyes open, Brytani, and email some pals.

[Brytani]

Thank you, as a matter of fact I'll be meeting with the head of my universities lab tomorrow and will ask him if he has any stats on this. If he does, he'll give it to me, the man loves stats more than his family (just kidding but he really does love statistics).

[Alia]

Check this out from Project Innocence

Still haven't gotten my hands on the "stats" which purport to show that DNA is not "conclusive"; this group linked, attributes "bad labs and faulty techniques". But still, no numbers or stats, yet.