Stemming the DNA Tide: A Case for Quality Control Guidelines
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I. INTRODUCTION
In November of 1991, twenty-three year old Jean Broderick was
brutally raped and strangled to death in her Minneapolis apartment,'
and her killer quietly walked away into anonymity. Or so it may
have happened. With no more than the few leads provided by the
Minneapolis police department and samples of blood and semen
found in the apartment, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Appre-
hension (BCA) believed they had found their man-Martin Perez.2
Based solely on a cold match between DNA samples left at the
crime scene and Perez's DNA type,3 the BCA identified Perez as the
prime suspect in the investigation. Prosecutors now seek to convict
Perez for the rape and murder of Jean Broderick .4
Although heralded by some as the second coming of the finger-
print,5 DNA evidence6 has come under the attacki of many skeptics
who believe such evidence has provided the impetus for prosecu-
torial overkill.17 Despite the raging debate, however, the significance
1. Margaret Zack, Hennepin Slaying Case Centers on DNA, Testing, [MINEA'OLIS]
STAR TRm., July 6, 1992, at lB.
2. Id.
3. Perez was convicted of rape in 1985. Id. MINN. STAT. § 609.3461 requires that
convicted sex offenders provide a DNA sample for the BCA's database. See infra note 157
and accompanying text.
4. See supra note 1. Interestingly, Perez had been deported to Mexico after his release
from prison in 1991, and thus he was not a suspect in this case. Returning illegally to
Minnesota, Perez was later located in the Hennepin County jail on burglary charges. Id.
5. DNA Identification: Hearing before the Subcommittee on the Judiciary, 101st Cong.,
.1st Sess. J-101-4 at 9 (1989) [hereinafter DNA Hearing] (testimony of Professor James E.
Starrs, Professor of Law and Forensic Sciences, The George Washington University); LOaNE
T. Ku y, DNA FINoERPRInT , AN INTRODUCTION at xv (1990). The author notes that Judge
Joseph Harris in People v. Wesley, 533 N.Y.S.2d 643 (Co. Ct. 1988) felt DNA technology
was the greatest single advance in the search for truth ... since the advent of cross-
examination. Id.; Mark D. Stolorow & George W. Clarke, Forensic DNA Testing: A New
Dimension in Criminal Evidence Gains Broad Acceptance, THE PROSECUTOR, Spring, 1992 at
24 (the author, Mark D. Stolorow, is Manager for Forensic Sciences for Celimark Diagnostics
Corporation).
6. The results of analysis of Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) analysis may be referred
to as DNA evidence, analysis, typing, matching, genotyping, or profiling results.
7. DNA Hearing, supra note 5, at 11 (testimony of Professor James E. Starts, Professor
of Law and Forensic Sciences, The George Washington University).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/hamlrv16&div=14&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Stemming the DNA Tide: A Case for Quality Control Guidelines
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