DNA Now Faulty Evidence

When I was watching an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit the other day, I was shocked when a suspect was able to pay a scientist to fake a detective’s DNA in order to frame her in a crime she did not commit. Dude, I thought, good thing this is fiction! Then it hit me: Law and Order shows typically base their stories on events that have happened in real life—or at least, real science, stories, or other cases.

So I decided to look it up, and lo and behold, it’s true: anyone can frame you for a crime and fabricate a blood sample from you with just a piece of your hair, your drinking cup, or another DNA-containing item. Here’s how it works (which is also the way it worked in the show): The scientist takes a DNA sample—it can be super tiny, mind you—and amplifies it into a large quantity through whole genome amplification. (Remember how Mr. Blue did that with the Hulk’s blood?)

Then, the blood of a random person—even the real crime committer, if he chooses—is centrifuged, its white blood cells removed. Since white blood cells are what contain DNA, the blood is now unidentifiable. Next, the amplified DNA of the original person is inserted into the blood itself, making it then that person’s blood sample. It’s such a simple but effective process that a man’s blood can even be turned into a woman’s blood without a hitch.

And the scariest thing—besides the fact that such evidence could be used against you, of course—is that it’s so simple, any bio major can pretty much do it. So now how do we handle DNA evidence, the “gold standard” on which so many cases have been proven? I wonder just how many clever criminals have gotten away with this already, with an enemy—or even some random Joe schmoe—in their place on death row.

Here’s another kicker: wholly against the death penalty, I’ve always had this argument thrown back at me: “Well, if you can prove that someone did it with DNA, then you’ve got the right person and they should get capital punishment.” While I still disagree, that argument doesn’t have as much merit—any at all, really—anymore, now, does it? How can we consciously condemn someone to death when the evidence we use is so easy to manipulate a college coed could do it?

The lead researcher of this discovery, Dan Frumkin, admits, “You can just engineer a crime scene. Any biology undergraduate could perform this.”

The researchers point out that not only does this discovery nullify evidence in millions of crimes—it also presents a possible violation of medical privacy. Just think—if anyone gets a hold of your drinking cup, he or she can turn it into a DNA sample to be tested.