DNA Evidence History and Status
Nick Smith
When Gregor Mendel published his studies of inherited characteristics of pea plants in 1866, he probably didn't know he was starting a sequence of events that would end in the 1987 conviction of someone in the United States based on DNA evidence. This article discusses the history and current status of the use of DNA evidence in the United States.
How DNA Evidence is Gathered and Used
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is a nucleic acid consisting of two chains of nucleotides bonded together in a double helix, and is responsible for determining the inherited characteristics of each person. Historically, DNA could only be extracted reliably from clean specimens of blood or other body fluids. Due to recent scientifi...
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