About LCN DNA… only the UK currently approves that kind of evidence in a trial BUT they have an extremely strict set of standards on how to run those kinds of tests AND require a very expensive specially built and equipped lab. There are very few DNA labs in the entire world that comply. And there are not many properly trained “experts” who are certified to carry it out. I should mention that none of those labs happen to be in Italy and the Italian technician was not trained or certified to do it. Also her boss in the lab worked as a paid consultant for Mignini at times and there is the implication that she was under the gun to come up with results.
All her original DNA tests showed no DNA on the knife at all. Only when she circumvented the built-in limits in the equipment and without doing any of the recommended calibration for false positives and running a lot more amplification runs did she finally come up with partial matches in a very statistically noisy result. And even then great care must be taken in interpreting the results which are much more liable to contamination than standard DNA tests. And even at this point the results with her “interpretation” of the results only yields suggestion of Meredith’s DNA… not blood. And this is important: If the knife was cleaned with bleach there would be no DNA but blood would still be detectable. And blood was not detected. The test for blood is very sensitive and it is very hard to eliminate all blood traces and yet there was no blood. That implies strongly that whatever DNA was detected was contamination and a weak result open to interpretation. Her DNA test reports as presented to the court are not complete so the entire process she used for all of these key tests is not available for review. Additionally the court did not allow defense DNA experts to testify about the faults in the prosecution’s DNA evidence.
Italian judges have poor understanding of forensics and tend to accept unquestioningly the results of government forensic labs.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/12/10/can_anyone_get_a_fair_trial_in_italy
“For one, they say that coerced confessions and the use of dubious forensic evidence, as might have happened in the Knox case, are way too common. “Inquiries are conducted without any reliable methods,” says Roberto Malini, president of EveryOne, a nongovernmental organization that defends ethnic minorities in jail. “Tests take place solely in the laboratories of the state police. There’s no independent lab, and independent observers do not have access to the police’s work.”
“Legal experts also share concerns about Italy’s bar for admissibility. Il Giornale, a conservative newspaper, for instance, recently published an interview with Marco Morin, a Venice-based firearms expert who declared he no longer wanted to work in Italian courts. “In the United States, federal judges must study a 637-page manual in order to be able to evaluate [forensic] evidence,” he told the newspaper. “Here, they accept everything without questioning, as long as it comes from the institutional laboratory.”
About LCN DNA… only the UK currently approves that kind of evidence in a trial BUT they have an extremely strict set of standards on how to run those kinds of tests AND require a very expensive specially built and equipped lab. There are very few DNA labs in the entire world that comply. And there are not many properly trained “experts” who are certified to carry it out. I should mention that none of those labs happen to be in Italy and the Italian technician was not trained or certified to do it. Also her boss in the lab worked as a paid consultant for Mignini at times and there is the implication that she was under the gun to come up with results.
All her original DNA tests showed no DNA on the knife at all. Only when she circumvented the built-in limits in the equipment and without doing any of the recommended calibration for false positives and running a lot more amplification runs did she finally come up with partial matches in a very statistically noisy result. And even then great care must be taken in interpreting the results which are much more liable to contamination than standard DNA tests. And even at this point the results with her “interpretation” of the results only yields suggestion of Meredith’s DNA… not blood. And this is important: If the knife was cleaned with bleach there would be no DNA but blood would still be detectable. And blood was not detected. The test for blood is very sensitive and it is very hard to eliminate all blood traces and yet there was no blood. That implies strongly that whatever DNA was detected was contamination and a weak result open to interpretation. Her DNA test reports as presented to the court are not complete so the entire process she used for all of these key tests is not available for review. Additionally the court did not allow defense DNA experts to testify about the faults in the prosecution’s DNA evidence.
Italian judges have poor understanding of forensics and tend to accept unquestioningly the results of government forensic labs.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/12/10/can_anyone_get_a_fair_trial_in_italy “For one, they say that coerced confessions and the use of dubious forensic evidence, as might have happened in the Knox case, are way too common. “Inquiries are conducted without any reliable methods,” says Roberto Malini, president of EveryOne, a nongovernmental organization that defends ethnic minorities in jail. “Tests take place solely in the laboratories of the state police. There’s no independent lab, and independent observers do not have access to the police’s work.”
“Legal experts also share concerns about Italy’s bar for admissibility. Il Giornale, a conservative newspaper, for instance, recently published an interview with Marco Morin, a Venice-based firearms expert who declared he no longer wanted to work in Italian courts. “In the United States, federal judges must study a 637-page manual in order to be able to evaluate [forensic] evidence,” he told the newspaper. “Here, they accept everything without questioning, as long as it comes from the institutional laboratory.”