Sex Offenses

A modern and revolutionary means of identifying criminal defendants in sex offense cases is the use of DNA EVIDENCE, often called DNA fingerprinting. Most of the cells of the body and bodily fluids contain a copy of the individual's DNA. Because every person has unique DNA (with the exception of identical twins) it can be used as reliably as a fingerprint in identifying someone. The Florida District Court of Appeals, in Andrews v. State, 533 So. 2d 841 (1988), review denied, 542 So. 2d 1332 (1989), was the first appellate court in the country to uphold the admissibility of DNA evidence in a criminal case. The Andrews case involved DNA testing of semen left at the crime scene that matched the DNA of the defendant. The court permitted the admission of the DNA evidence on the ground that it was considered scientifically reliable. Most states now permit such evidence to eliminate an individual from the list of criminal suspects.

DNA testing has also been used to examine evidence from crime scenes gathered years before DNA testing was available. These tests have been successful in many post-conviction proceedings to show that the individual convicted and incarcerated was not the actual offender. Thus, DNA evidence has secured the release of many innocent people.

DNA evidence has been successfully challenged based on the laboratory's methods of running or performing the DNA tests. Human error can render unreliable results and make the basis for a challenge to such evidence in any trial. These attacks generally affect the weight of the evidence but usually do not make the evidence inadmissible.