DNA Testing in the Case of Kirk Bloodsworth

The technology of DNA testing has changed in two important ways in the last twenty years. In particular, the ability of the technology to obtain meaningful results from old samples and to discriminate between DNA samples has increased significantly (Warden, 2003, p. 1). Thus, in his testimony before the United States Congress on 20 June, 2000, Peter Neufeld, the co-director of the Innocence Project at the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law and a commissioner with the New York State Forensic Science Commission, addressed this important matter. He noted that although some form of DNA testing was theoretically available to most defendants at the time of trial in the vast majority of post-conviction DNA exonerations, in many cases the form of DNA testing then available was unreliable. Not surprisingly, therefore, since its inception in 1992, the Innocence Project has seen the exoneration of at least 151 convicts based on new DNA testing.

The earliest form of DNA testing was known as restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) testing. However, while RFLP testing can be a very discriminating testing technique, it has limitations. In particular, it requires a relatively large quantity of good quality DNA and it is unreliable in recovering useful DNA fragments from DNA samples that have become degraded or that are simply too small for the large quantities of DNA needed by this technique (Human Genome Project, 2004, p. 1). Thus, PCR treat