STORY: "DNA-Mixture Analysis Exonerates Wrongly Convicted Man in Indiana," by reporter Seth Augenstein, published by Forensic Magazine on April 25, 2016.
SUB-HEADING: "Darryl Pinkins, released after 24 years in prison due to a wrongful rape conviction, hugs Darryl Pinkins, Jr. The son was in the womb went his father went to prison."
GIST: "A man who served 24 years in prison for a rape conviction was exonerated and released today – the first of its kind based on the latest DNA-mixture analysis methods. Darryl Pinkins, now 63, was convicted of a brutal gang rape, in which a group of assailants bumped a woman’s car at a red light and then assaulted her repeatedly once she got out of her vehicle on Dec. 7, 1989.........The victim’s clothes had a mixture of DNA, and the attackers left behind a pair of work coveralls, according to attorneys. The coveralls had been reported stolen from Pinkins’ coworker’s car the night before the rape. The physical evidence led to the arrest of the three coworkers. The first trial for Pinkins and Roosevelt Glenn in 1990 had ended in a mistrial, due to DNA evidence that excluded them as contributors to the genetic mixture. But at a second trial, they were convicted based mostly off of serological evidence – blood types and other biomarkers, according to Throughout their stay in prison, Pinkins and Glenn both maintained their innocence. They also rejected all deals and never turned on one another. The Indiana Innocence Project, led by Frances Watson of Indiana University, began investigating the case in 1999. The years of work included disproving that a single hair belonged to the accused (a third person who had worked with Glenn and Pinkins was not re-tried after the first hung jury). Glenn was released in 2009, after court testimony determined that one of the semen stains potentially included the profile of all Caucasians by blood type. “It is a horror story that these men were convicted in the first place,” said Hampikian. “The DNA tests ordered by the state in 1990 should have ended it before their trials. These men were excluded by science from the very beginning.” Hampikian had worked on the case since 2006. But it was probabilistic genotyping, the newest method of DNA-mixture analysis, which led to the court order to free Pinkins. TrueAllele, a vaunted big-data analysis of complex genetic mixture made by the Pittsburgh-based Cybergenetics, was consulted in 2014 on the case. Mark Perlin, the creator of the technology, and Hampikian were both initially scheduled to testify today about their findings in the mixture from the 1989 crime. But prosecutors conceded to the new science, allowing the judge to order Pinkins’ release on Friday......... Perlin said the technology resulted in five unidentified genotypes – none of whom were the three defendants. “So much more can be done with DNA to find the truth,” said Perlin. “Flawed DNA analysis keeps innocents in jail and leaves victims without justice. It was tragic that failed DNA methods ignored the evidence, inflicting so much needless suffering on these men and their families for so many years.” Hampikian, who excluded Pinkins and Glenn using the traditional method of combined-probability of exclusion (CPI), told Forensic Magazine in an interview from outside the prison “This is the first exoneration using probabilistic genotyping like TrueAllele,” he said. “It’s going to allow the review of thousands of cases.” TrueAllele’s findings indicated that three of the five attackers of the woman in 1989 were brothers. Profiles have been generated of the gang-rape perpetrators, who remain at large. “They were never found,” said Hampikian. “But there are new profiles that could be used. They could find whoever did this.”
http://www.forensicmag.com/articles/2016/04/dna-mixture-analysis-exonerates-wrongly-convicted-man-indiana#.Vx53o_BS5aQ.twitter
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com;
Harold Levy;
