Lonnie David Franklin Jr. was most commonly known as the Grim Sleeper or least commonly called one of the [many] Southside Slayers. Born August 30th, 1952 the Grim Sleeper’s past could not be more ominous. Aside from a lack of details of his mysterious past that may hint at reasons as to why Lonnie Franklin terrorized Southern Los Angeles for more than twenty years, he appeared fairly normal to his neighbors and surrounding family members. Serial killer Lonnie Franklin had a long career before he was ever caught, in fact it was DNA evidence that both caught Franklin and was actually one of the primary reasons as to why he wasn’t apprehended sooner. Franklin has yet to be executed and still more can be learned from his years of freedom when…
Neysmith, A rape victim identifies her assailant as Hamilton Neysmith. Charged with rape Neysmith declares his innocence and submits a blood sample along with a semen sample to Lifecodes Corporation which is a forensic DNA testing facility for comparison. Lifecodes reports an exclusion stating the sample may not have been Neysmith’s. Even after the courts make a second attempt with a court order, the Lifecodes still declares the samples are from different individuals. Neysmith still maintaining his innocence, demands a third blood test to be tested.…
Almost two years before Christine’s death, another three year old (Courtney Smith) had disappeared from her bedroom and was found raped and murdered in a nearby pond. And in this story the mother's boyfriend was sentenced to life in prison (Dewan). This story made people question if it was actually Brewer who killed Christina or if it was the same person who killed Courtney. After DNA testing was improved, many people were released after they were proven…
There was no physical evidence connecting Bloodsworth to the crime, however, he was sentenced to death row because of his conviction of rape and murder. Bloodsworth’s conviction was overturned by the appellate court…
Mara Leveritt writes a fascinating tale of the American justice system gone terribly wrong in her book Devil’s Knot. On May 5, 1993, Christopher Byers, Michael Moore, and Steven Branch went missing from their homes in West Memphis, Arkansas. Subsequently, their bodies were recovered in a body of water by their homes with signs that they had been ferociously beaten and murdered. The evidence showed that Christopher Byers had been castrated before he was killed. Quickly, the town found out about the boys and the way they had been treated before they were murdered.…
To apprehend the individual, a partial DNA sample was collected from the victims and inserted into the database. Upon searching for a match, the search revealed the DNA matched to Christopher Franklin (Paddock, 2011). Judging from Franklin’s age and the years the attacks occurred, it was concluded that someone with similar DNA, but older, committed the old, heinous crimes. Hence, it led to the arrest of Franklin’s father, Lonnie Franklin Jr.…
Boston: Pearson. Retrieved September 8, 2017, from https://www.betheluniversityonline.net/cps/default.aspx?SectionID=5980&tabid= Treffers, S. R., B. H. S. C., Burgess, A. W. D. N. S. C., A.P.R.N., & Burgess, A. G., D.B.A. (2013). When the parent is the suspect in child murder: Part 2 Forensic Examiner, 22(3), 48-54. Retrieved September 8, 2017, from…
Wrongful Conviction On the morning of August 10, 1984, Deborah Sykes was brutally stabbed, sexually assaulted, and eventually killed in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The man convicted for her murder was Darryl Hunt, a 19 year old boy that would go on to spend 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Hunt was convicted based on eye-witness testimony and informants, but was later exonerated based on DNA evidence that matched a man that was caught just a few months after the murder took place. This case is an exemplar of the strength of DNA evidence and the fragility of eyewitness testimony.…
In 1933 one of the women that initially accused the boys of rape admitted to the event never happening when a judge went to the medical examiner the second testimony was proven true. In 1995 new trials were again once again ordered due to the unfair jury where 4 of the men were let free and the other four were sentenced to…
Furthermore the bite marks that had been on Sabina were analyzed and came inconclusive. They went to two different analyst one said that it matched Roy Browns bite marks. As well as the other side it couldn’t be him because he was missing two upper teeth and it had a full set of teeth on Sabina. Then there was evidence on the night shirt that had DNA on it, but at the time they couldn’t analyze because the technology didn’t exist back then. Soon after that they did analyze and was not Mr. Brown.…
There was sufficient evidence explaining how the boys were guilty. The boys were all on the train as well as the girls. After a doctor’s examination there was sperm found in both of the girls, proving that they had been sexually active (pg 5). There was also a witness that was there. Arthur Woodall had testified that he searched one of the boys and found a knife…
As I continued to read on I realized how they were both victims in one way or another. I also realized how flawed our system truly is. There have been 330 people exonerated with DNA evidence, out of the 330 of those people. 205 of them were African American. Innocent…
Just imagine you being with your friends; and out of nowhere your parents getting a phone call from the police saying you were arrested for being part of a murder that you did not commit . As you are sitting there in a cold room with bars as a door that the world calls a jail sail. What 's going through your head at that time; will my parents believe me? Why did the police come after me? Who did they kill?…
The implementation of DNA evidence can not only establish the facts of an offense and identify the offender; it may even lead to a conviction. In the law enforcement, DNA has been introduce as a revolutionary and efficient accurate tool to solve and crack modern and cold cases. When properly documented, collected, and stored, biological evidence can be analyzed to produce a reliable DNA profile years, even decades, after it is collected. Furthermore, DNA has brought justice to those who have been brutally victimized of rape and sexual abuse by atrocious conniving sex predators. Just as evidence collected from a crime that occurred yesterday can be analyzed for DNA, today evidence from an old rape kit, bloody shirt, or stained bedclothes may…
An old case has recently, been overturned due to DNA fingerprinting. Cathy Woods, a mentally ill individual, from Reno, Nevada, confessed to killing Michelle Mitchell, a student of the University of Nevada (Possley, 2016). The only evidence the police had was her confession and her knowledge of details about the crime that had also been released to the public (Possley, 2016). In 1980, Woods was convicted of first-degree murder (Possley, 2016). In 1985, the Nevada Supreme Court reversed her conviction and gave her a new trial but within a few months, she was convicted for the second time for life without parole (Possley, 2016).…