DNA Database Searches and the Legal Consumption of Scientific Evidence
![handle is hein.journals/mlr97 and id is 953 raw text is: DNA DATABASE SEARCHES AND THE
LEGAL CONSUMPTION OF SCIENTIFIC
EVIDENCE
Peter Donnelly*
and
Richard D. Friedman**
DNA evidence has transformed the proof of identity in criminal
litigation, but it has also introduced daunting problems of statistical
analysis into the process. In this Article, we analyze a problem re-
lated to DNA evidence that is likely to be of great and increasing
significance in the near future. This is the problem of whether, and
how, to present evidence that the suspect has been identified
through a DNA database search. In our view, the two well-known
reports on DNA evidence issued by the National Research Council
(NRC), each of which has carried great authority with the Ameri-
can courts on various issues, have been badly mistaken in their
analysis of this problem. Similar errors affect the analyses of schol-
ars who have supported the NRC reports. We will also offer some
reflections on the habits of mind, of both lawyers and statisticians,
that may have led to this result. Finally, we will suggest an ap-
proach that legal decisionmakers might take in general with respect
to scientific and statistically-based evidence to avoid this kind of
difficulty. This approach is significantly different from that which
pervades the Supreme Court's decisions in Daubert v. Merrell Dow
Pharmaceuticals, Inc.1 and its recent sequel, General Electric Co. v.
Joiner,2 as well as their precursor, Frye v. United States.3 And the
* Professor of Statistical Science and Head of the Department of Statistics, University of
Oxford. B.Sc. [Hons.] 1980, Queensland; D.Phil. 1983, Oxford. - Ed. Part of this work was
completed while Professor Donnelly was visiting the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathemati-
cal Sciences at the University of Cambridge. Their support and hospitality are gratefully
acknowledged.
** Professor of Law, University of Michigan. B.A. 1973, J.D. 1976, Harvard; D.Phil.
1979, Oxford. - Ed. The authors wish to thank Ian Evett, Peter Gill, Sam Gross, M. Dawn
Herkenham, Nancy King, and Paul Robinson for helping in various ways.
1. 509 U.S. 579 (1993).
2. 118 S. Ct. 512 (1997).
3. 293 F. 1013 (D.C. Cir. 1923).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/mlr97&div=29&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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DNA Database Searches and the Legal Consumption of Scientific Evidence
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