基本説明
New in paperback. Hardcover was published in 2008.
Full Description
Databases of both convicted offenders and no-suspect cases demonstrate the power of DNA testing to solve the unsolvable. George "Woody" Clarke is a leading authority in legal circles and among the news media because of his expertise in DNA evidence. In this memoir, Clarke chronicles his experiences in some of the most disturbing and notorious sexual assault and murder court cases in California. He charts the beginnings of DNA testing in police investigations and the fight for its acceptance by courts and juries. He illustrates the power of science in cases he personally prosecuted or in which he assisted, including his work with the prosecution team in the trial of O. J. Simpson.
Clarke also covers cases where DNA evidence was used to exonerate. He directed a special project in San Diego County, proactively examining over six hundred cases of defendants convicted and sentenced to prison before 1993, with the goal of finding instances in which DNA typing might add new evidence and then offered testing to those inmates.
As Clarke tells the story of how he came to understand and use this new form of evidence, readers will develop a new appreciation for the role of science in the legal system.
Contents
Foreword by Janet Reno
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Science in the Courtroom
1. The Scientist Becomes a Victim
2. A New Prosecutor
3. The Transition to DNA Evidence
4. The Fight for Acceptance
5. A Stranger Rapist and a Murderer: Early Success with DNA Evidence
6. A Double-Edged Sword: DNA for and against the Prosecution
7. A Child and a Critical Nightshirt
8. DNA and a Football Hero Collide
9. Back Home in San Diego: An Unusual Rape Case
10. When a Match Is Not a Match
11. Exonerations, Databases, and STRs
12. A National Approach
13. The District Attorney's Office Searches for Innocence
14. DNA Takes to Television
15. The Tragic Case of a Small Child
16. A Cold-Hit DNA Match Solves an Old Crime
17. Helena Greenwood Revisited
Glossary
Index
