In
July of 1987, teenagers Randall Scott Jones and Chris Reesh were target shooting
with a 30/30 hunting rifle at the Rodman Dam recreation area in Florida. While
they were shooting, Jones’ pickup truck became stuck in a sandpit. A
fisherman suggested that the two ask for help from a nearby pickup truck. The
two approached the truck where they found Kelly Lynn Perry and her fiancé,
Matthew Brock, sleeping. Jones and Reesh debated on whether or not
they should wake the two to ask for help.
The
next morning, fishermen found the bodies of Perry and Brock in the woods
next to the recreation area. Police
investigation showed that each was shot in the head with a 30-caliber bullet. Brock
was shot twice in the head, and Perry was shot once. It
was also found that Perry had been sexually assaulted. The pickup was reported stolen.
In
August, Jones was arrested in Mississippi driving Brock’s truck. Reesh was arrested the next day after Jones
had said the two were together that night in July. Both were indicted on counts of first-degree murder and sexual
battery.
A
semen sample was taken from Perry’s body, and blood samples from Jones and
Reesh were taken. They were compared
in a laboratory that specializes in DNA fingerprint testing. The DNA fingerprint indicated that Jones had
raped Perry.
Using
DNA fingerprinting along with other evidence, events of the crime were put
together. Jones confessed to shooting
both Perry and Brock in the head at close range. The two teens then dragged the bodies into the woods. They towed Jones’ truck out of the sandpit
with Brock’s truck, and the two drove off with both trucks. Later, Jones returned to the bodies, took
them further into the woods, and raped Perry.
A
representative from the DNA fingerprinting laboratory testified that the
chance of another person having the same DNA fingerprint as Jones was one
in 9,390,000,000.
The
jury only deliberated for 30 minutes. The
jury convicted Jones of two counts of murder, one count of burglary, one
count of shooting into an occupied vehicle, and one count of sexual battery. The
judge sentenced him to a double death sentence. This
made the case the first in which DNA fingerprint evidence was used, and the
death sentence was given. Reesh was
sentenced to six years in prison and twenty years probation.
The first practical test of DNA fingerprinting
involved Christina Sarbah and the Home Office in England. Christina wanted to prove that Andrew, who
had been living in Ghana with Christina’s estranged husband, was indeed her
son.
Immigration officials held Andrew
at Heathrow Airport, because they claimed that his passport was forged, or
a substitution had been made. Member
of Parliament Martin Stevens intervened and made it so the child could stay
at his family’s home in London with siblings David, Joyce, and Diana.
The Hammersmith Law Centre, who provides
legal aid to the underprivileged, put together large amounts of evidence,
including pictures and statement by family members. Various tests to determine genetic characteristics
showed that Christina and Andrew were almost certainly related. What
the tests did not prove was whether or not Christina was the mother or merely
an Aunt. This evidence was rejected at an immigration
hearing, but deportation was put off pending an appeal.
Centre
workers contacted Alec Jeffreys at Leicester University after they read in
the local newspaper about a scientific discovery that could prove maternity,
and they asked him to take on the case. Jeffreys
accepted the case because he believed it would be an ideal test of the DNA
fingerprint technology he had recently developed. He compared the DNA extracted form the blood
samples from Christina, Andrew, the three other children, and an unrelated
individual. The resulting DNA fingerprint
would verify whether or not Andrew is Christina’s son.
It
was questioned whether Christina was Andrew’s Aunt, a sister of his true
mother. Andrew’s fingerprint contained
about 25 bands that were inherited from his mother. The possibility that Christina is the true mother’s sister and
yet happens to share 25 bands with her is about one in 600,000.
The
case was complicated because of the lack of the father’s blood sample and
the doubts about Andrew’s paternity. Jeffreys
reconstructed the father’s fingerprint from bands present in the three undisputed
children, but absent in Christina. About half of Andrew’s bands match bands in
the father’s compilation, and the remaining bands were all present in Christina’s
fingerprint. The possibility of this
happening by chance is greater than one in a trillion.
Thoroughbred
horses are bred primarily for galloping speed, which is based on a number
inherited characteristics, including muscle mass, conformation, and cardiopulmonary
capacity. These animals are carefully
mated, and their ancestry can be traced back many generations. Verification
of an animal’s parentage is key to its value.
This
case involves a leading stud horse, from one of the most prominent thoroughbred
lines, and his son. The father was
retired from studding when low sperm count indicated he was becoming infertile. Mares
without foal who had been mated to the father were then remated to the son. However, standard blood tests could not confirm whether father
or son was the sire of the foals conceived during this changeover period.
The
autoradiogram proved that the son sired the foal. Although the foal shared a band with the father, all of the foal’s
bands are accounted for only by including two that originated with the son.
As a test of identity, DNA fingerprinting can
positively determine thoroughbred parentage. However,
DNA fingerprinting of horses is far more difficult than it is in humans. Due
to centuries of meticulous inbreeding, all thoroughbreds are derived from
a closed pool of genetic material. Even
thoroughbreds not directly related share a common genetic heritage, and consequently,
may also share a large number of DNA fingerprint bands.