31-Jul-2023

University of California professor gets the DNA wrong

Cybergenetics response to Bill Thompsonʼs (University of California, Irvine) highly flawed Case Report has had over 200 downloads from Elsevierʼs Social Science Research Network (SSRN) repository. Our paper is of general interest, using Thompsonʼs many mistakes to teach effective “reporting of exclusionary results on complex DNA evidence.” We cover 20 concepts and respond to 120 statements.

Our conclusion notes that TrueAllele has been used in 205 defense cases, and 75 innocence cases. In addition to aiding convictions, the system has helped secure acquittals, dropped charges, favorable settlements, and ten exonerations. Cybergenetics has re-analyzed STRmix “inconclusive” or weak LR results on 85 evidence items, finding stronger exclusionary results for 55 of them (65%).

Links

• Reporting Exclusionary Results on Complex DNA Evidence, A Case Report Response to 'Uncertainty in Probabilistic Genotyping of Low Template DNA: A Case Study Comparing Strmix™ and Trueallele^®' Software - SSRN