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FBI Fights Testing For False DNA Matches

Statesman writes "The Los Angeles Times reports that an Arizona crime lab technician found two felons with remarkably similar genetic profiles, so similar that they would ordinarily be accepted in court as a match, but one felon was black and the other white. The FBI estimated the odds of unrelated people sharing those genetic markers to be as remote as 1 in 113 billion. Dozens of similar matches have been found, and these findings raise questions about the accuracy of the FBI's DNA statistics. Scientists and legal experts want to test the accuracy of official statistics using the nearly 6 million profiles in CODIS, the national system that includes most state and local databases. The FBI has tried to block distribution of the Arizona results and is blocking people from performing similar searches using CODIS. A legal fight is brewing over whether the nation's genetic databases ought to be opened to wider scrutiny. At stake is the credibility of the odds often cited in DNA cases, which can suggest an all but certain link between a suspect and a crime scene."

4 of 411 comments (clear)

  1. Re:This is why the death penalty is a bad idea. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    See twitter? When you stay away from the "M$ WINDOZES LOLOL" posts, you actually make sense. Isn't it refreshing to realize that? You don't need 14 accounts, you don't need to shill your posts and forget to switch accounts, you don't need any of that.

    See?

  2. Moderators: Please note by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Erris and "Odder" are the same person.

  3. Re:This is why the death penalty is a bad idea. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    twitter, can you comment on why you wrote this journal entry about a Slashdot user?

    I'm actually curious.

  4. Re:This is why the death penalty is a bad idea. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Don't forget this one. Don't miss the "death threats" section while you're there.