Case report: Coincidental inclusion in a 17-locus Y-STR mixture, wrongful conviction and exoneration

Hampikian, Greg; Peri, Gianluca; Lo, Shih Shiang; Chin, Mong-Hwa; Liu, Kuo Lan

doi:10.1016/j.fsigen.2017.08.004

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…However, a rare case of wrongful conviction by Y-STR profiling took place after an innocent individual was convicted for 2 years due to a coincidental match of a 17loci Y-STR profile in an alleged case of sexual assault. Re-evaluation was carried out after the conviction, using 23 loci, where 2 loci did not match the suspect, and the guilty verdict for the alleged suspect was reversed 11 .…”

Section: Y Chromosome Str Profilingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A short review on the use of short tandem repeat based DNA profiling in sexual assault

Cassim

2020

Sri Lanka J Forensic Med, Sci & Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Forensic DNA evidence can convict perpetrators who would otherwise have escaped, hence the reason for its growth in case evidence over the years. Short Tandem Repeat (STR) profiling, continues to be the mainstay for forensic DNA testing due to its robustness and high power of discrimination. The 'core STRs' in forensics, are highly polymorphic, and unique to an individual, therefore proven as important investigative leads in cases of identification of perpetrators in sexual assault, thereby ensuring justice. The common STRs used to date are autosomal STRs, Y-STRs, mini STRs and recently, Deletion Insertion Polymorphism-STRs. This article reviews current literature and discusses the advantages and limitations of each STR marker and their targets in different challenging samples. It aims to provide intuition on minimising ambiguous profiles for case evidence in sexual assault and thereby, reduce the chances of wrongful conviction by DNA evidence.

show abstract

Section: Y Chromosome Str Profilingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A short review on the use of short tandem repeat based DNA profiling in sexual assault

Cassim

2020

Sri Lanka J Forensic Med, Sci & Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Although, in numerous cases, jurisdictions make use of the benefits that lineage marker analysis can bring, they do however have strong limitations in forensic applications, specifically, conclusions may not be drawn on the individual level as would be otherwise desirable [149][150][151]. Although haplotype markers usually are not included as standard markers in police databases, similarly to the Internet-based STR information resource [9,152], haplotype databases have also been designed to store haplotypes from global populations.…”

Section: Brief History Of Uniparental Lineage Markersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forensic DNA Technological Advancements as an Emerging Perspective on Medico-Legal Autopsy: A Mini Review

Pádár¹,

Zenke²,

Kozma³

2018

Post Mortem Examination and Autopsy - Current Issues From Death to Laboratory Analysis

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The importance of biological traces and evidences related to a criminal matter has been recognized for a long time. The examination of the expression of genetic polymorphism has been an integral part of the multidisciplinary field of medico-legal autopsy for over a century. Since the initial application of blood group antigens for personalization of a putative perpetrator in a murder case, the discipline of forensic genetics has evolved as a standard of forensic sciences. The real breakthrough, the application of molecular tools and processes for the in-vitro replication of genetic substances, has increasingly allowed the exploitation of advances of molecular genetics for both forensic and criminal investigations. Although there are certainly many more applications and scientific fields in the medico-legal arena, the relatively fast progress of genetics, which has accelerated recently with state-of-art technologies, can provide ever more relevant information in relation to a corpse or the cause and manner that resulted in the corpse for autopsy. This topic concerns the currently accepted forensic DNA technology, and the last section reviews commonly used markers for nuclear and mitochondrial DNA analysis as well as ongoing research. This review also focuses on the increasingly important non-human sources of DNA, and shortly covers the main aspects of animal forensic DNA examination.

show abstract

“…In assessing the evidentiary significance of a Y-STR profile, an estimate of the rarity of a Y-STR haplotype in the population is commonly determined by practitioners using the "counting method" in which the number of times a Y-STR profile appears within the database is used to obtain a conditional probability [7], although other methods beyond simply counting Y-STR haplotypes for single-source male samples such as the Discrete Laplace (DL) and Kappa methods have been recommended [8][9][10][11][12]. While these haplotype databases and the counting method are relatively easily used for the analysis of singlesource DNA profiles, their use with Y-STR mixtures becomes much more complex and impractical, especially if distinct major and minor contributors are not present [13,14]. For Y-STR mixtures, several interpretation solutions have been proposed including, for example, a DL-based approach [15], a "haplotype centered" (HC) likelihood ratio derivation method [13] and an ingenious adaptation of the existing mathematical theory of autosomal DNA mixture interpretation to the haploid situation [16].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Y‐STR mixture deconvolution by single‐cell analysis

Huffman

Hanson

Ballantyne

2022

Journal of Forensic Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Since Y-STR typing only amplifies male Y chromosomal DNA, it can simplify the interpretation of some DNA mixtures that contain female DNA. However, if there are multiple male contributors, mixed Y-STR DNA profiles will often be obtained. Y-STR mixture analysis cases are particularly challenging though as, currently, there are no validated probabilistic genotyping (PG) software solutions commercially available to aid in their interpretation. One approach to fully deconvoluting these challenging mixtures into their individual donors is to conduct single-cell genotyping by isolating individual cells from a mixture prior to conducting DNA typing. In this work, a physical micromanipulation technique involving a tungsten needle and direct PCR with decreased reaction volume and increased cycle number was applied to equimolar 2-and 3-person buccal cell male DNA mixtures and a mock touch DNA case scenario involving the consecutive firing of a handgun by two males. A consensus DNA profiling approach was then utilized to obtain YFiler™ Plus Y-STR haplotypes. Buccal cells were used to optimize and test the direct single-cell subsampling approach, and 2-3 person male buccal cell mixtures were fully deconvoluted into their individual donor Y-STR haplotypes. Single-cell (or agglomerated cell clump) subsampling from the gun's trigger recovered single-source Y-STR profiles from both individuals who fired the gun, the owner, and the other unrelated male. Only the non-owner's DNA was found in the cells recovered from the handle. In summary, direct single-cell subsampling as described represents a potential simple way to analyze and interpret Y-STR mixtures.

show abstract

Case report: Coincidental inclusion in a 17-locus Y-STR mixture, wrongful conviction and exoneration

Cited by 9 publications

References 11 publications

A short review on the use of short tandem repeat based DNA profiling in sexual assault

A short review on the use of short tandem repeat based DNA profiling in sexual assault

Forensic DNA Technological Advancements as an Emerging Perspective on Medico-Legal Autopsy: A Mini Review

Y‐STR mixture deconvolution by single‐cell analysis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About