DNA Evidence and the Death Penalty

Shelia Jansoff argues in “Just Evidence: The Limits of Science in the Legal Process” that with the developments in technology and science leaps can be taken in the legal world. With the new ability of DNA identification, criminals can be matched to crime scenes consistently with nearly no doubts. Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, wanted to institute the death penalty once again because of the accurate results of linking crimes to criminals. However, just because the DNA tests are not likely to fail, does not prove for a fact that the evidence found on the crime scene was directly related to the crime all the time.
We have seen in movies and on television shows of people being set up for a crime someone else committed. In a particular case, the knife found on the crime scene in the deceased’s hand had the blood of the person being set up on it. In addition, those who set this man up also put a whip that belonged to the deceased with his blood on it, in the trunk of the man being set up. During the court case the man being set up had no chance of proving he did not do it because of all of the DNA evidence apparent. Even though the DNA did not fail to show whose blood was at the crime scene, the man given the death penalty was innocent.