DNA evidence working to clear the innocent of any wrongdoing
Sep 7, 2023, 9:00 PM | Updated: Sep 8, 2023, 10:47 am
DNA evidence has recently exonerated a 72-year-old man of a 1975 rape conviction. (Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY — With the rapid developments in science and technology, many crimes are being solved with DNA evidence long after they occurred. Or, in the case of a New York man, the conviction is overturned.
CNN reports that a 72-year-old man was recently exonerated of a rape conviction he received in 1975. The man had served seven years in prison. But new DNA testing got his conviction overturned.
KSL Legal Analyst Greg Skordas said the technology is used my multiple agencies to clear the innocent.
“It’s really tough,” Skordas said. “Because DNA has done so much good in helping law enforcement catch people. And it’s used as a law enforcement tool in this case,” Skordas said.
“It was a tool to help the justice system to help show that a person, even though the crime occurred, what, almost 50 years ago, was in fact not the right person that was ultimately convicted and sentenced.”
Skordas says that it’s good the DNA did its job, but tragic that it took so long to get that result.
Reviewing cases from the past with new DNA evidence
He also said that there are groups such as the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center, that will look at cases from the past when current technology wasn’t available.
In such cases, Skordas says, items found at the crime scene are tested again with new technology.
Should cases, such as the one in New York, be a call for other cases from the 1970s and 1980s to be reviewed?
“We do need to go back and revisit some of these cases,” Skordas said. “And you can bet that they will. You can bet individuals who are sitting in prison will contact CSI-skilled lawyers. And say, ‘Can we just take another look at my case.'”
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