In our world of law and justice, accusations are a fundamental thing. But have you ever been accused? For something you didn't do? Sometimes the truth is not always as it seems, police make mistakes, prompt false confessions, and prior to recent times relied almost exclusively on witnesses, and testimonies.
Would you be willing to rest a life sentence on the word of a single person? A person who might be biased, confused, or unstable? I sure wouldn't.
However, with new forensic technology, advances have been made. Advances, such as DNA profiling provide irrefutable evidence, that for better or worse, cannot tell a lie. Like I said, in modern times this is standard practice, but prior to its existence, countless innocents were falsely convicted. This has been proven by The innocence Project.
The Innocence project is an organization dedicated to the exoneration of falsely convicted persons. Now, using methods such as DNA profiling, it is possible to re-examine evidence to find out what really happened. So far, they have proven three hundred and sixteen people to be innocent of their crimes. Its truly an incredible thing, and through learning about it, I have found new meaning in the study of forensics.
So now that you know what it can do, how does DNA profiling actually work? Through learning about the process I can claim the following: DNA profiling works through electrolyte gel. A sample of DNA is collected from both the crime scene and the victim, and smeared in a strait line onto a specially prepared electrolyte sample in tow separate lines. A third control example is also smeared onto a third and separate line to see the maximum VTNR lengths. The strands are then allowed to grow, until each line has a full sized VTNR, or variable number tandem repeat. Basically this is just the pattern of lines that appears on the electrolyte gel.
The two patterns are then compared, if they match odds are the suspect is guilty, however if they don't... then they are in fact, innocent.
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