DNA Does Not Prove Innocence

http://bostonherald.com/news/opinion/letters/view/20110613innocence_unproven/srvc=news&position=recent_bullet

It takes a lot of chutzpah for Dennis Maher to prop himself up as a poster boy for more DNA testing to prove “innocence.” He claims that he is one of 271 men who have been “exonerated” through new DNA tests but he fails to mention that the word “exonerate” only means no criminal conviction (“Justice denied without simple DNA test,” June 8). It does not mean actual innocence. To the contrary, in research I’ve conducted over the past several years on the first 200 of those cases, evidence shows that as many as 90 percent of those “exonerated” were, in fact, guilty. DNA results may show that someone other than the accused was at the crime scene, but it rarely proves actual innocence.


June 13, 2011
Boston Herald
Letter
Wendy Murphy, Adjunct Professor New England Law, Boston