Posted on 04/30/2014 2:35:37 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A suspect in two violent rapes in Boston a decade ago has been freed because DNA testing could not differentiate him from his identical twin brother.
Dwayne McNair, 33, was freed by a judge on Tuesday after spending two years behind bars awaiting trial. He was released from an eight-count indictment that charged him with raping two young women, reports the Boston Herald. Prosecutors say the 23- and 19-year-old victims were abducted at gunpoint off city streets within days of each other in 2004, pistol-whipped, and raped.
2011 tests of DNA left at the scene couldn't distinguish between McNair's DNA and that of his twin brother, and prosecutors relied on statements by an alleged accomplice to indict McNair, reports the Herald.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
There’s a corroborating witness. Who needs DNA??
Generally, nobody commits violent rapes out of the blue. There should be more than DNA evidence involved here.
Even if the DNA is identical, there are tests that can distinguish between samples. (Differing immunity responses, since they probably have not had identical disease histories. Differing epigentics, methylization of their DNA will be at varying locations. Differing strains of normal bacterial fauna the perp picked up from the victims that the innocent man won’t have)
So the DNA evidence narrows it down to two people and the accomplice narrows it down to one. So what is the problem?
Agreed. Fingerprints, for example (similar but not identical).
Why is new DNA evidence good enough to free people on ‘death row’, but never good enough to execute someone?
Stuff like this wouldn’t happen if the familiy of the victim just shot the sobs who pull legal stunts.
They could make a Federal ammo commercial out of it....kind of like the old doublemint gum commercials.
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