Will a DNA test today yield unwanted information tomorrow?

My mother-in-laws arms look like shes been in a fight. The bruises dont hurt, but theyre embarrassing. Theyre likely due to the drug Plavix, a trade-off for preventing clots. But we dont know if the drug is actually helping, because she started it before the FDA urged physicians to use a pharmacogenetic (PGx) test to distinguish patients likely to respond to the drug from poor metabolizers, who wont. And no ones thought to test her since.

The original Plavix genetic test identified mutations in the CYP2C19 gene. More recent versions assess seven other genetic variants that affect metabolism of the drug. On June 29, the University of Florida Academic Health Center announced that it would use the wider genetic test to screen all cardiac catheterization patients for response to Plavix. And in the future, theyll check additional DNA variants in the samples. According to the press release from the university, researchers will collect results for the other 249 gene variations to continue investigating which ones might be clinically actionable and become the basis for additional PGx tests for other treatments such as warfarin and statins.

Is it OK to take DNA today for one purpose, and use it tomorrow for another? Should future use of DNA information be part of informed consent for participation in a clinical trial? And should patients, like someone giving blood for a PGx text, be told that his or her DNA might be used later, for reasons not currently known? And how can the Florida clinicians even obtain informed consent from patients in an emergency situation undergoing cardiac catheterization?

At least the Plavix case will use the DNA to address the same illness for which it was donated. But what if DNA collected today is eventually used to investigate a different condition, perhaps one that the original owner of that DNA didnt want to know about? A Native American tribe from Arizona offers a compelling (although not legal) precedent for future-use scenarios.

The Havasupai and Future-Use DNA

The Havasupai have lived at the bottom of the Grand Canyon for more than 10 centuries, but in 1882 the US government deemed the region a national park, restricting their home. When the tribe abandoned farming and turned to tourism to survive, they partook of junk food and a more leisurely lifestyle. Soon, diabetes became common.

In 1990, researchers from Arizona State University visited the Havasupai to take DNA samples to look for diabetes genes. Two years later, with no findings, they then analyzed the DNA for other traits, including schizophrenia (a stigma in the Havasupai culture), inbreeding (an insult), and worst of all, ancestry (Asian origins countered what the Havasupai told their children). The researchers also shared the DNA with others, without consent.

The Havasupai discovered the future-use of their DNA only after one of their own heard about it in a lecture at ASU. In 2004, they filed a lawsuit. The settlement in April 2010 brought $700,000 to 41 Havasupai members, return of blood samples, scholarships, and help to build a health clinic. But the researchers didnt own up to liability.

Bioethicists Arthur Caplan and Jonathan Moreno discussed implications of the Havasupai settlement in The Lancet, but, I think, too broadly. They compare the Havasupai DNA situation to that of organ donors, embryo donors, and people like Henrietta Lacks and John Moore, whose cervical cancer cells and spleen, respectively, were taken without consent and eventually yielded huge profits. But DNA is different.

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Is Future-Use DNA Sampling Ethical?

ST. LOUIS DNA evidence that proved the innocence of a man imprisoned for 17 years in two rapes in 1985 led to the conviction Wednesday of Johnnie Moore, who had a record of other sex crimes.

A St. Louis Circuit Court jury deliberated for only one hour including time for lunch before finding Moore, 55, guilty of two counts each of forcible rape and sodomy for separate attacks on girls 14 and 16.

Sentencing is set for Aug. 31. He could face prison terms of up to life without parole.

Both girls were accosted on the street and forced into secluded locations where they were attacked at knifepoint. The first was at Norwood and Maffit avenues on July 26, 1985, and the second at Lillian and Davidson avenues on Oct. 1, 1985.

Moore, of St. Louis, claimed on the witness stand Wednesday that sex with both was consensual. He alleged that the 14-year-old only called it rape because she was angry when he stopped after she revealed her young age.

But Assistant Circuit Attorney Christine Krug advised jurors not even to consider such a claim. Were it true, Krug noted, it would not have taken police 27 years to track down Moore, because the angry teen would have pointed to him from the start.

Instead, both teens initially identified the wrong man, Lonnie Erby, who spent 17 years in prison for those rapes and another until he was exonerated in 2003 by the same science that linked Moore to the crimes.

Moore was indicted in December 2010 after the victims were located and the match was confirmed.

Justice delayed? Yes, Krug said. Justice denied? No.

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DNA that freed one man in 1985 St. Louis rapes convicts another

July 13, 2012 1:14 am

By Sadie Gurman/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

DNA evidence stored in the Allegheny County crime lab helped a Pittsburgh police sex assault detective solve a decades-old rape case.

Stevey Darnell Kiser, 56, of San Diego was being held in the Allegheny County Jail on Thursday, charged with raping a woman at knife point in her Shadyside apartment building on Aug. 23, 1988.

The woman told police at the time that she was walking home from a friend's house and entering her apartment when a man hit her on the head, knocking her to the ground. The man raped her as she screamed and fought against him; she stopped when he threatened to kill her, Detective Aprill-Noelle Campbell wrote in a criminal complaint filed against Kiser. A fellow apartment-dweller heard her cries and saw a man holding a knife. The assailant darted across Fifth Avenue, down College Avenue and out of sight.

The woman was taken to UPMC Shadyside, where a rape kit was used to collect evidence, which later was processed by criminologists at the county lab.

Twenty-three years passed before the woman, who had been researching her case, contacted Detective Campbell. She told the detective she had been reading about "East End Rapist" Keith Wood, who was responsible for a series of brazen sexual assaults on women in the East End in 2002, and she wondered if DNA evidence gathered from her case had ever been compared to Mr. Wood's.

Detective Campbell wrote that she contacted Thomas Meyers, a scientist with the Allegheny County medical examiner's office, who told her that the woman's evidence had not been entered into the nationwide DNA database known as CODIS, or Combined DNA Index System, which catalogs the DNA of convicted felons. The medical examiner's office began performing DNA tests in 1995 and thus had not analyzed the evidence, Mr. Meyers told the detective, according to the criminal complaint.

The county lab has specimens from hundreds of unsolved cases dating to 1982. The CODIS system routinely checks DNA from unsolved cases against that of known criminals with the goal of finding a match, and police have made a push in recent years to add more cases, including missing persons and unidentified remains, to the database.

Detective Campbell received notice of a match in the rape case in April. Kiser lives in San Diego, where he was arrested in 2009 for driving a school bus with a loaded gun, a spokesman with the San Diego County district attorney's office said. Police charged him with a pair of felony firearms offenses, to which he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years of probation. California law requires officers to collect DNA samples from all adults arrested for felonies, so Kiser's sample was added to the database.

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DNA leads to arrest in 1988 assault case

By Deborah Feyerick, CNN

updated 5:46 PM EDT, Wed July 11, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

New York (CNN) -- DNA found on a chain used by protesters believed to be aligned with the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York appears to be a "similar profile" to DNA recovered in the unsolved murder of a Julliard student in 2004, according to a source with knowledge of the case.

There currently is no definitive forensic match between DNA recently found on the chain and DNA on a compact disc player believed to have belonged to Sarah Fox, which was recovered in 2004, the source said.

Heiress' death a mystery

City authorities say they are investigating what could be new evidence in the killing of Fox, although they remained cautious, saying the find could pose any number of possibilities and is potentially unrelated to her death.

The chain was recovered in Brooklyn and used by demonstrators during a March protest, the source said.

Fox, a third-year drama student at the prestigious performing arts school in Manhattan, was 21 when she went missing.

Her roommate told authorities she was last seen leaving their apartment with her keys and a pink portable CD player.

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Source: DNA at Occupy protest similar to material on victim's CD player

Officials have linked forensic evidence from the 2004 murder scene of a 21-year-old Juilliard student to the scene of a recent Occupy Wall Street subway protest, NBC 4 New York has learned.

DNA evidence from the scene of Sarah Fox's murder in Inwood Hill Park eight years ago has been connected to DNA from a chain left in a subway station by Occupy protesters in March, NBC 4 New York first reported Tuesday.

Fox was found nude and strangled in the park in May 2004, days after she disappeared during a daytime jog. Investigators recovered her pink CD player in the woods just yards from her body.

Sources said Tuesday the DNA found on the CD player matches DNA found on a chain left by Occupy Wall Street protesters at the Beverly Road subway station in East Flatbush on March 28, 2012.

"I hope the person or persons who killed this young woman are found and brought to justice," said BillDobbs, a spokesman for Occupy WallStreet. "We don't know anything about it... I hope no one jumps to any conclusions."

In March, protesters chained open emergency gates and taped up turnstiles in eight subway stations and posted fliers encouraging passengers to enter for free.

A "communique" posted online later that day by the "Rank and File Initiative" described the act as a protest against service cuts, fare hikes and transit employees' working conditions.

It was attributed to "teams of activists, many from Occupy Wall Street... with rank and file workers from the Transport Workers Union Local 100 and the Amalgamated Transit Union."

No one was arrested in the March subway protest incidents. Police are continuing to investigate, and are now working to try to identify the source of the DNA found in common with the chain and the CD player.

There's no immediate evidence that the DNA belongs to the protesters who chained open the gates.

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DNA Links Fox Murder, OWS Protest Scenes

A DNA match has created a puzzling new turn in a prominent unsolved killing, linking crime-scene evidence from a drama student's 2004 death to a chain collected after a protest that claimed affiliation with Occupy Wall Street this spring, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.

A database of DNA samples recently matched DNA on the chain to material on a compact disc player found near Sarah Fox's body, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official wasn't authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.

But the DNA hasn't been matched to any person, and it remains to be seen what authorities will be able to make of the unexpected find and what it might mean for a longtime suspect who has never been charged.

NBC 4 New York first reported the DNA match.

Fox, 21, was on a semester off from her studies at The Juilliard School when she vanished after setting out to go running in an upper Manhattan park on May 19, 2004. Her disappearance spurred a search that involved 260 police recruits, as well as volunteers, and thousands of dollars were offered as a reward for information.

Her body was found after six days in the park, with her clothing gone and her larynx fractured. Her CD player was about 100 feet away.

Police questioned a resident of the neighborhood near the park, Dimitry Sheinman, and he surprised them by saying he had "visions" about Fox that could help the investigation. Former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau pronounced Sheinman the "No. 1 suspect," but Sheinman was never charged. He has denied any wrongdoing. No contact information for him could immediately be found.

The chain was used to hold open an emergency exit gate during a protest this March 28 at a Brooklyn subway station. Aiming to draw attention to transit issues by giving passengers free rides, the demonstrators opened exits at various subway stations. A statement described many of the participants as members of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

An Occupy representative didn't immediately respond to an email message late Tuesday.

It wasn't immediately clear who might have provided or touched the chain.

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DNA Ties '04 NYC Death to 'Occupy'

Occupy Wall Street protesters hold up signs outside near the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street In New York City on April 23, 2012. UPI/John Angelillo

License photo

NEW YORK, July 11 (UPI) -- DNA taken from the site of an Occupy Wall Street protest in New York has been matched to DNA linked to an unsolved killing of a student in 2004, officials said.

The DNA from the protest site was taken from a chain Occupy Wall Street protesters had used in March to keep open an emergency exit door at a subway station to allow passengers to ride free, The New York Times reported.

The Juilliard School student, 21-year-old Sarah Fox, had disappeared while on a jog in Inwood Park in upper Manhattan in May 2004 and her naked body was found in the park nearly a week later surrounded by yellow tulip petals.

The DNA on the chain, which MSNBC reported was found at a Brooklyn subway station, matched DNA found on Fox's portable CD player, which had been recovered from Inwood Park several days after the discovery of her body, law enforcement officials said.

A law enforcement official told the Times it remained unclear who might have touched both the CD player and the chain or why. The official said it was possible that person was not the killer.

"Whether it's a friend or the bad guy, we have to find out," the official said.

Police had released Occupy Wall Street protest surveillance video showing people in dark hoods wrapping a long silver chain around the emergency exit door at the subway station.

Officials hoping to determine who chained open the emergency exit entered DNA from the chain into a database.

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DNA links Occupy protest scene, killing

DNA found on a chain used by Occupy Wall Street protesters might lead New York police to new clues in the unsolved 2004 slaying of Julliard student Sarah Fox.

DNA found on Fox's CD player has been linked to DNA found on a chain the protesters used during a subway protest in March, sources told ABC News and its New York station WABC.

Fox, 21, was a student in the drama department of the renowned Julliard School. She had taken a temporary leave from the school when she disappeared May 19, 2004, after going out for a run in New York's Inwood Hill Park.

Her body was found naked six days later, surrounded by tulip petals. She had been strangled. Fox's CD player was later found in the area during a search for evidence. No arrest was ever made.

Now, DNA from the CD player has apparently been linked to DNA from a chain used during Occupy Wall Street protests on March 28, 2012.

Protesters wearing masks, hoods and gloves chained open the emergency gates to at least three subway stations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, according to Crime Stoppers. The suspects posted signs that said, "Customers ride for free." They also taped over the metro-card readers so that they could not be used.

The DNA was found on the chain used at the Beverly Road subway station in East Flatbush.

Sources said the DNA has not been linked to a specific person, and might not even belong to the protestors who chained the gates open.

Nobody was arrested for the subway protests. The NYPD had released surveillance video of the suspects chaining the gates.

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DNA Links Student's Slaying to 'Occupy'

Investigators have connected DNA evidence from the 2004 murder of a 21-year-old Juilliard student to DNA from an act of vandalism at Occupy Wall Street, NBC 4 New York reported.

Sarah Fox was running in a Manhattan park eight years ago and later found nude and strangled with her CD player a short distance away. DNA found on the CD player is linked to DNA discovered on a chain left by Occupy Wall Street protestors at a March demonstration in a Brooklyn subway station, the channel reported.

At the event, protestors chained open emergency exits and taped up turnstiles in several subway stations, and encouraged riders to enter for free.

According to NBC 4, there is no immediate evidence that the DNA belongs to one of the OWS protestors who chained open the gates.

For years, Dimitry Sheiman was the prime suspect in the murder. In June, he claimed to be a clairvoyant who wanted to help cops catch the killer, MyFoxNY reported. He insisted they came from clairvoyant visions and that he still communicates with Sarah's spirit.

Police are continuing to investigate.

Read more from the original source:
DNA links 'Occupy' protest scene to 2004 murder- Arrest made in 1985 killing of elderly couple

Officials have linked forensic evidence from the 2004 murder scene of a 21-year-old Juilliard student to the scene of a recent Occupy Wall Street subway protest, NBC 4 New York has learned.

DNA evidence from the scene of Sarah Fox's murder in Inwood Hill Park eight years ago has been newly connected to DNA collected at the scene of an Occupy Wall Street subway station vandalism in March, NBC 4 New York first reported Tuesday.

Fox was found nude and strangled in the park in May 2004, days after she disappeared during a daytime jog. Investigators recovered her pink CD player in the woods just yards from her body.

Sources said Tuesday the DNA found on the CD player matches DNA found on a chain left by Occupy Wall Street protesters at the Beverly Road subway station in East Flatbush on March 28, 2012.

That Wednesday morning, protesters chained open emergency gates and taped up turnstiles in eight subway stations and posted fliers encouraging riders to enter for free.

A "communique" posted online later that day by the "Rank and File Initiative" described the act as a protest against service cuts, fare hikes and transit employees' working conditions.

It was attributed to "teams of activists, many from Occupy Wall Street... with rank and file workers from the Transport Workers Union Local 100 and the Amalgamated Transit Union."

Sources said they have not connected a person to the common DNA. There's no immediate evidence that the DNA belongs to the protesters who chained open the gates.

No one was arrested in the March incidents. Police are continuing to investigate, and are now working to try to identify the source of the DNA found in common with the chain and the CD player.

Dr. Lawrence Koblinsky, a forensics expert at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the DNA link was a major clue in the investigation, one that could potentially break the case.

Read this article:
DNA Links Murder Scene, OWS Protest Scene

NEW YORK DNA recovered from a chain at the site of an Occupy Wall Street protest in March has been matched with DNA linked to the unsolved killing of a Juilliard student in 2004, law-enforcement officials said Tuesday.

The student, Sarah Fox, 21, disappeared while on a jog in Inwood Hill Park in May 2004, and her naked body was found in the park almost a week later surrounded by yellow tulip petals. The DNA on the chain, the officials said, was matched with DNA found on her portable compact-disc player, which was found in the park several days after her body was discovered. Police said she was strangled.

Investigators were seeking to determine the significance of the DNA match. One law-enforcement official said it was unclear who might have touched both items and why, noting that it might not have been the killer.

"Whether it's a friend or the bad guy, we have to find out," the official said.

The chain was used in March to prop open an emergency-exit door at a subway station as part of an Occupy Wall Street action to allow passengers to ride free.

The police later released surveillance video of people in hoods and masks wrapping a long silver chain around the door.

The investigation of the killing had focused on an artist and construction worker. Seven months after her body was found, the district attorney at the time said he was the "No. 1 suspect," but that there was not enough evidence to charge him.

The new findings raise questions about whether they have focused on the wrong person. Through his lawyer, the artist has denied any role in the killing.

Read this article:
DNA ties protest site to killing 8 years ago

NEW YORK A DNA match has created a puzzling new turn in a prominent unsolved killing, linking crime-scene evidence from a drama student's 2004 death to a chain collected after a protest that claimed affiliation with Occupy Wall Street this spring, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.

A database of DNA samples recently matched DNA on the chain to material on a compact disc player found near Sarah Fox's body, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official wasn't authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.

But the DNA hasn't been matched to any person, and it remains to be seen what authorities will be able to make of the unexpected find and what it might mean for a longtime suspect who has never been charged.

NBC 4 New York first reported the DNA match.

Fox, 21, was on a semester off from her studies at The Juilliard School when she vanished after setting out to go running in an upper Manhattan park on May 19, 2004. Her disappearance spurred a search that involved 260 police recruits, as well as volunteers, and thousands of dollars were offered as a reward for information.

Her body was found after six days in the park, with her clothing gone and her larynx fractured. Her CD player was about 100 feet away.

Police questioned a resident of the neighborhood near the park, Dimitry Sheinman, and he surprised them by saying he had "visions" about Fox that could help the investigation. Former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau pronounced Sheinman the "No. 1 suspect," but Sheinman was never charged. He has denied any wrongdoing. No contact information for him could immediately be found.

The chain was used to hold open an emergency exit gate during a protest this March 28 at a Brooklyn subway station. Aiming to draw attention to transit issues by giving passengers free rides, the demonstrators opened exits at various subway stations. A statement described many of the participants as members of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

An Occupy representative didn't immediately respond to an email message late Tuesday.

It wasn't immediately clear who might have provided or touched the chain.

Go here to see the original:
Official: DNA match links unsolved 2004 NYC murder to chain used in Occupy subway protest

SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) - Police say they have a DNA hit that links two murders just a few blocks apart.

Police have always suspected two Santa Fe killings were connected because one victim was a homeowner who walked in on burglars in his house.

Santa Fe police believe David Martinez ran with a group of burglars while he was alive. He or someone in that group killed a man who walked in on them as they were stealing from him.

That was in February when Ethaan Boyer, 34, who was a community volunteer and owned a graphic design company, was killed inside his Santa Fe home after coming home from work.

Police have not made an arrest in that murder.

A couple of weeks later David Martinez was shot and killed just a few blocks away, the body was dumped in a neighboring park..

His brother, Felix Martinez, admitted to shooting him at their home with the help of a man police considers another serial burglar, Sam Leyba.

They have been in jail since the shooting.

Santa Fe police have been trying to link the two murders since March to solve Boyer's case.

Detectives sifted through garbage at the Martinez home and the landfill looking for evidence.

Read this article:
DNA linked to two Santa Fe murders

AKRON, Ohio - After 17 years in prison for murder, Dewey Jones will get a new trial in Summit County.

Jones motion for a new trial was granted by the Summit County Common Pleas Court Tuesday based on new DNA evidence.

Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands wrote in her decision that the absence of Jones and another suspect Gary Rusus DNA on newly tested evidence calls into question the States entire theory of the case.

Jones, 50, was convicted in 1995 for the 1993 murder of Neal Rankin, a 71-year-old Goodyear retiree, who was discovered shot inside his home on Valentine's Day in Akron's Chapel Hill area.

The DNA Diagnostics Center of Fairfield conducted the DNA tests. They showed DNA taken from a rope used to tie Rankin's wrists and a knife found at the scene do not match Jones.

Rowlands said that evidence also undermines the testimony of State witness Willie Caton that Jones and Rusu went to Rankins house to rob the man and Jones shot him.

This newly discovered evidence calls into question the credibility and reliability of Mr. Catons testimony, and combined with the absence of any DNA supporting his testimony, requires this Court to grant the motion for a new trial, Rowlands wrote.

The Court denied the defenses argument of prosecutorial misconduct as grounds for the new trial.

Joness daughter Ashley told NewsChannel5s Bob Jones in May that her father believes hes innocent.

In one of his letters to his daughter, Jones wrote, "I've always knew God was going to bring out the truth. I just never thought it would take as long as it has been. I'm looking forward to the day the truth comes out and they set me free and I can see all my children."

Original post:
DNA evidence gets man new trial

LAKE HALLIE, Wis. (WEAU) A suspect in a break-in two years ago is now charged in the case, and officers say DNA evidence is what led them to the suspect.

Curtis Brown, 25, of Lyndon Station is charged in Chippewa County with Burglary and several other counts. Hes scheduled to appear in court later this month.

Lake Hallie Police initially responded to Randys Holiday Towing on 115th Avenue in Lake Hallie on November 13, 2009. They say someone had forced their way in through the front door, and stole an employees pickup truck. The suspect drove it through the overhead garage door. Eau Claire Police found the truck that day, and a Lake Hallie officer collected DNA evidence by swabbing the interior of the truck. An unidentified mans DNA was found in the truck.

Brown, who was on probation in Sauk County, was reported to Lake Hallie Police as a matching person to the DNA evidence in March 2012. Officers interviewed him and collected his DNA. Brown admitted to police that he forced the door open and stole the truck. Police say the owner of the business doesnt know Brown. He also didnt know who owned the vehicle which was stolen.

Continue reading here:
DNA evidence helps police find suspect in 2009 break-in, truck theft

By Mike Wagner

The Columbus Dispatch Tuesday July 10, 2012 7:26 AM

Dewey Jones quest to prove that he isnt a murderer took another step forward yesterday when a judge overturned his felony conviction and granted a new trial for the Akron man, who has served 17 years of a life sentence.

The ruling by Summit County Common Pleas Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands follows the release in April of new test results showing that DNA recovered from an Akron murder scene didnt come from Jones.

Jones, 50, was convicted in March 1995 of robbing and killing 71-year-old Neal Rankin, a family friend. Jones previously had been convicted of drug trafficking and passing bad checks, but he has always maintained his innocence in Rankins murder.

Ive done some things Im not proud of in life and made some bad choices, Jones told The Dispatch last year at the Richland Correctional Institution in Mansfield last year. But Ive not hurt or killed anyone.

The lab tests, conducted by DNA Diagnostics Center of Fairfield in southwestern Ohio, found a partial male DNA profile on the piece of rope used to tie Rankins wrists, the knife used to cut the rope, and pieces of Rankins shirt sleeves. None of it matched Jones when compared with his DNA.

The testing also found no DNA that matched Gary Rusu, whom the states lead witness testified was in Rankins home on the night of the murder, Feb. 13, 1993.

Rowlands, in her two-page ruling, said the lack of DNA evidence is significant.

The absence of both Mr. Jones and Mr. Rusus DNA on the new tested evidence calls into question the States entire theory of the case, Rowlands wrote. Carrie Wood, Jones Innocence Project attorney from Cincinnati, said she will now be seeking Jones release from prison.

The rest is here:
DNA tests lead to new trial for man serving life term

By Mike Wagner

The Columbus Dispatch Monday July 9, 2012 11:30 PM

Dewey Jones quest to prove that he isnt a murderer took another step forward today when a judge overturned his felony conviction and granted a new trial for the Akron man, who has served 17 years of a life sentence.

The ruling by Summit County Common Pleas Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands follows the release in April of new test results showing that DNA recovered from an Akron murder scene didnt come from Jones.

Jones, 50, was convicted in March 1995 of robbing and killing 71-year-old Neal Rankin, a family friend. Jones previously had been convicted of drug trafficking and passing bad checks, but he has always maintained his innocence in Rankins murder.

Ive done some things Im not proud of in life and made some bad choices, Jones told The Dispatch at the Richland Correctional Institution in Mansfield last year. But Ive not hurt or killed anyone.

The lab tests, conducted by DNA Diagnostics Center of Fairfield in southwestern Ohio, found a partial male DNA profile on the piece of rope used to tie Rankins wrists, the knife used to cut the rope, and pieces of Rankins shirt sleeves. None of it matched Jones when compared with his DNA. The testing also found no DNA that matched Gary Rusu, whom the states lead witness testified was in Rankins home on the night of the murder, Feb. 13, 1993.

Rowlands, in her two-page ruling, said the lack of DNA evidence is significant.

The absence of both Mr. Jones and Mr. Rusus DNA on the new tested evidence calls into question the States entire theory of the case, Rowlands wrote.

Carrie Wood, Jones Innocence Project attorney from Cincinnati, said she will now be seeking Jones release from prison.

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DNA tests win man new trial

ScienceDaily (July 9, 2012) By looking at signature chemical differences in the DNA of various immune cells called leukocytes, scientists have developed a way to determine their relative abundance in blood samples. The relative abundance turns out to correlate with specific cancers and other diseases, making the technique, described in two recent papers, potentially valuable not only for research but also for diagnostics and treatment monitoring.

When a person is sick, there is a tell-tale sign in their blood: a different mix of the various types of immune cells called leukocytes. A group of scientists at several institutions including Brown University has discovered a way to determine that mix from the DNA in archival or fresh blood samples, potentially providing a practical new technology not only for medical research but also for clinical diagnosis and treatment monitoring of ailments including some cancers.

The key to the new technique, described in two recent papers, is that scientists have identified in each kind of leukocyte a unique chemical alteration to its DNA, called methylation. By detecting these methylation signatures in a patient's blood sample and applying a mathematical analysis, the researchers are able to determine the relative levels of different leukocytes and correlate those with specific diseases.

"You can simply look at the DNA and discern from the methylation marks the relative abundance of different type of leukocytes," said Karl Kelsey, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine in the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a senior author on both papers. "It's a way to more easily interrogate the immune system of a lot of people."

Other tests, using flow cytometry, can already sort through the abundance of different leukocytes in a blood sample, but they require the blood to be fresh and leukocyte cell membranes to be intact. Because the DNA in a blood sample remains even after cells have died and degraded, tests based on detecting methylation could help doctors or researchers analyze a patient's blood sample that has either aged or has simply not been kept fresh.

In a paper published in advance online June 19 in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention, the researchers describe using their technique to distinguish accurately which blood samples came from patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, ovarian cancer, or bladder cancer. By using methylation to determine the leukocyte populations in each sample, they could predict that the same samples were as much as 10 times more likely to have come from a patient with ovarian cancer than a healthy control patient, six times more likely to be from a head and neck cancer patient than a healthy control, or twice as likely to be from a bladder cancer patient than a control.

"Our approach represents a simple, yet powerful and important new tool for medical research and may serve as a catalyst for future blood-based disease diagnostics," wrote the authors, who hail from Dartmouth, Oregon State University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of California-San Francisco, as well as Brown. Several authors worked with Kelsey at Brown during the research.

They describe the technique and its analytical methods in deep mathematical detail in another paper published in May in BMC Bioinformatics. They also report experiments that included analyses of the leukocyte mix of noncancer conditions such as Down syndrome and obesity.

The paper found many examples of differences between the immune cell mix of healthy controls and people with specific illnesses. For example, obese African Americans had an estimated increase in granulocyte leukocytes of about 12 percentage points. People with Down syndrome, had 4.8 percentage points fewer B cells. For head and neck cancer, they noted a 10.4 percentage point drop in CD4+ T-lymphocytes.

"Any disease that has an immune-cell mediated component to it would have applicability," Kelsey said.

Link:
Technique spots disease using immune cell DNA

Andre Davis, right, is hugs his father Richard Davis inside the Tamms Correctional Centre. Photo: AP

Andre Davis spent 32 years behind bars as an innocent man before DNA evidence overturned his life sentence. He was only 19 when he was wrongfully convicted of raping and murdering three-year-old Brianna Stickle in 1980.

Now 50, Mr Davis walked out of Tamms super-maximum security prison in Illinois, USA, last Friday into a radically changed world.

I don't think we had the issues they had in America with the vast separation and the vast number of laboratories that were set up over there, and many of them weren't accredited

Had his legal team not requested in 2004 that blood and semen samples be DNA tested, he might never have been freed. The results proved that Davis could not have committed the crime.

One of 42 convicted men in Illinois who were proven innocent after DNA testing, Mr Davis's case reflects a growing trend in the United States. With support from the Innocence Project and other organisations, DNA testing is being used to re-examine cases where prisoners may be innocent.

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Australia has not experienced a similar ratio of wrongful convictions being overturned after DNA testing and is unlikely to do so in the future, according to a senior NSW forensic expert, who asked not to be identified.

Unlike the US, forensic laboratories in Australia are more heavily regulated and testing standards are higher, he said.

"We run an extremely thorough and accurate system in Australia where laboratories became accredited very early on.

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The trials of Andre Davis: how DNA stopped an innocent life being completely stolen

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) The Fort Worth police crime lab will resume DNA testing a decade after questions were raised about whether its tests were valid.

On Monday, two forensic scientists in the lab will start working on DNA cases. Three other scientists will be trained in the coming months.

The lab stopped DNA tests in October 2002 after prosecutors did not seek the death penalty in a capital murder case due to concerns raised about one of the lab's scientists. An investigation later found widespread problems at the lab, but prosecutors said no one was wrongly convicted or accused because of flawed DNA analysis.

Still, the department began sending DNA samples elsewhere for testing and currently spends about $250,000 a year to do so. Grants cover other tests at the University of North Texas.

An in-house lab will be cheaper and quicker, said Tom Stimpson, the crime lab director, adding that a faster turnaround can mean quicker arrests.

In the past, after submitting a sample, police would have to wait one to three months to get a DNA profile to link with a suspect.

"Now, we're going to be able to do that in a week, so we can get them off the streets much sooner," Stimpson said. "It saves a lot of surveillance and investigation costs."

The DNA analysis lab has been moved into a defunct department store building that was been converted into a high-tech crime lab and property room in 2010, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported (http://bit.ly/M496I6).

Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Christy Jack, who helped investigate the old crime lab, has toured the new one and is pleased Fort Worth will resume DNA testing.

"The new facility is state of the art, and I have the utmost confidence in the personnel who will be overseeing the DNA testing," Jack said.

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Fort Worth crime lab to resume DNA testing