Kaye quoted in `Los Angeles Times’

07/21/2008

Kaye quoted in `Los Angeles Times’ 

David Kaye

David Kaye

     An article in the Los Angeles Times about the accuracy of the FBI’s DNA statistics and resulting ignition of a legal fight about whether the nation’s genetic databases should be opened to wider scrutiny included comments from College of Law professor David Kaye.
     “I can appreciate why the FBI is worried about this,” said Kaye, an expert on science and the law and former member of a national committee that studied forensic DNA. But “people’s lives do ride on this evidence. It has got to be explained.”
     Genetic evidence has emerged as the forensic gold standard, often presented as unassailable in court, wrote reporters Jason Felch and Maura Dolan in the July 19 article entitled, “How reliable is DNA in identifying suspects?” However, a discovery in 2001 by an Arizona crime law analyst has led to questions about whether the odds of people sharing genetic profiles are higher than portrayed.
     As a result, lawyers around the country are asking for their own state databases to be tested for accuracy, as well as the CODIS, the national system that includes most state and local databases.
     To read the rest of the story, click here.
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