DOUBT DOWN UNDER  Monday, December 22, 2008

Section 143 of Australia's Child Support Act is being put to the test. The law provides a legal basis for men to take action if they can successfully challenge paternity. Since the legislation was enacted almost two years ago, more than 300 men have had requests approved to stop child support payments. DNA test results have provided the basis for 18 of those men to file for repayment, totaling more than $170,000 to date.

The Courier-Mail

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BELATED HOMECOMING  Monday, December 15, 2008

World War I has been over for nearly a century and while many lives were lost, they have not been forgotten. In fact, DNA testing may mean honor and a proper resting place will be bestowed on some 400 Australian and British soldiers. A mass grave was discovered earlier this year in Pheasant Wood, Fromelles in France based on meticulous research by an amateur historian. Exhumation of the bodies and forensic DNA testing is to begin next year.

[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]

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TRUTH & CONSEQUENCES  Thursday, December 11, 2008

Paternity fraud is becoming a global epidemic, and courts around the world are trying to figure out the best way to deal with such cases. The outcome is soon to be determined for one London couple. The prosecution alleges the man and his lover switched samples back in 2001 to falsify the results of a DNA paternity test. The case also highlights the importance of performing court-ready or legal DNA tests which maintain a strict chain of custody and require samples to be collected by an impartial third party.

[Daily Dispatch Online]

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ONE LAST CHANCE  Thursday, November 20, 2008

DNA testing has brought television drama to life in Santa Cruz, CA. 36 years ago Peter Mitchell placed a call to the police station two blocks from his home to say he was being murdered. When police arrived Mitchell described his assailant and told them his name just before dying from a stab wound to the heart. An intense investigation began, and while information led police to believe the murderer was a hitchhiker Mitchell picked up, the case went cold with no arrest. George Turegano, the detective who investigated the crime originally, is now 62 and retired but he's back on the case working as a community service officer. He has reopened the case and submitted cigarette butts and other trace evidence in hopes of learning Mitchell's killer.

[Santa Cruz Sentinel]

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THE SEARCH IS OVER  Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Peggy Fossett's search for answers to her husband's disappearance in September 2007 ended with a harsh reality. DNA testing confirmed that two bones found near a crash site in California's Sierra Nevada belong to Steve Fossett. They were found along with his wallet and a pair of his tennis shoes.

The recreational aviator had taken off from a friend's Nevada ranch. When he didn't return, a 20,000 square foot search was launched that led nowhere. It wasn't until a hiker went off course in October 2008 that the plane crash, bones and other evidence were discovered.

[Time]

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SUPREME DECISIONS  Thursday, November 6, 2008

DNA testing has helped prove the innocence of numerous convicted felons. In many of these cases, the technology and testing wasn't available when they went to trial. Although an overwhelming majority of states in the union grant convicted felons access to DNA testing on evidence years after a crime was committed, there are still six that do not. The Supreme Court will now decide if it is a constitutional right every state must grant.

The case resulted when an Alaskan man, William Osborne, sued the state for the right to have evidence tested that could overturn his kidnapping, rape and assault convictions. The U.S Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit referred it to the highest law of the land since the lower appeals courts are divided on the constitutionality of requesting evidence testing post-conviction.

[LA Times]

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TURNING BACK THE CLOCK  Monday, October 13, 2008

Section 7646 of the California Family Code may get some updating if the state legislature gets its way. An amendment (SB 1333) to the code, that allows fathers to contest a past judgment of paternity if DNA paternity testing shows they are indeed not the biological father, is awaiting approval. The California Alliance for Families and Children (CFAC), a family advocacy group, asserts this is the first step in dealing with paternity fraud.

[California N.O.W.]

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CALLING CARD  Wednesday, October 8, 2008

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department is breaking ground in new ways to collect DNA evidence. Officers started using Trigger ID kits recently to preserve potential DNA evidence from handguns found at the scene of a crime. Before packing the weapon into an evidence bag, police use a pocket-sized kit to swab the pistol grip, barrel and magazine. Law officials are hoping DNA testing from these swabs will lead to more prosecutions in gun-related crimes.

[Indystar.com]

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IT'S IN THE GENES  Thursday, October 2, 2008

Preliminary research suggests parents pass on more than just hair and eye color. A recent study published in the medical journal Pediatrics led researchers to speculate 1 in 116 children are born with the herpes virus passed through their maternal or paternal DNA. Caroline Hall, MD and professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at the University of Rochester and senior author of the study, says they will continue research to see if the affects of the virus differ for children born with it compared to those who contract it after birth.

[Scientific American]

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MATTERS OF THE HEART  Thursday, September 18, 2008

Humanitarian efforts are delicate issues, and the U.S. State Department's suspended East African family-reunification is a prime example. The program, known as Priority Three (P3), was instituted to reunify families from civil war-torn areas with relatives living in the U.S. Complaints of fraud led officials to conduct DNA testing earlier this year in an effort to establish legitimate family ties before allowing refugees entry into the U.S. The results showed only a small fraction, about 20 percent, of individuals were actually blood relations. Critics of the testing, and subsequent suspension of the program, claim family ties are a grey area in the affected countries, including Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, since men and women often raise and take responsibility for orphaned and abandoned children. State Department officials understand critics' concerns but insist they have to set a standard to balance the need of all refugees seeking entry, which totaled more than 45,000 in the last year. Officials hope to resume the program once they reconcile the fraud issues, though there is no set date.

[Wall Street Journal]

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