Not only can DNA be used to convict criminals, it has
successfully been used to exonerate individuals, some of whom were wrongly imprisoned
for more than two decades.
Often, the person who is wrongly convicted of a serious
crime such as murder or rape has a criminal record for petty crimes, which
means a record already exists. These individuals are frequently convicted on
eyewitness testimony, but without any physical evidence tying them to the
crime.
The Innocence Project, created in 1992 by Peter Neufeld and
Barry Scheck at the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law in New York, works to
exonerate people by use of post-conviction DNA, in which DNA from the crime
scene is tested against the accused's DNA. Often, physical evidence from a
crime is kept for many years. If the evidence includes samples of blood, hair,
skin, or other evidence that can include DNA, it can often be used to prove that
the person accused could not have committed the crime. Moreover, if it turns
out that the DNA matches a profile in a database such as CODIS, the real
criminal can be located and tried. From 1992 to April of 2014, the Innocence
Project helped exonerate 316 prisoners.
Personally, I feel that the use of DNA to exonerate
wrongfully convicted individuals is a necessity in the criminal justice system.
I suspect an innumerable amount of wrongfully convicted individuals are still
in prison, just waiting for an organization like The Innocence Project to come
along. Every human being, regardless of their racial, cultural, or financial
backgrounds, deserves a right to live their life to the fullest. Now, how can
that happening if they are stuck behind bars?
