Rock Harmon, DNA expert and a member of the prosecution team involved in the 1995 O.J. Simpson murder trial, will be speaking in the Forensic Science Institute’s auditorium, room 106, from 3 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
Harmon will be giving a talk on the controversial forensic process known as “familial DNA searching,” also known as partial DNA matching.
“He’ll be talking about its usefulness and he’ll also be talking about the critics, and their voice in this debate,” Dr. Dwight E. Adams, Forensic Science Institute director, said.
Harmon was a prosecutor in Alameda County, Calif. for over 30 years. He became renowned in the state and across the country for his expertise in DNA evidence.
“He was the go-to person for the State of California in any case involving the use of DNA,” Adams said. “He became a national resource for prosecutors all over the country that were utilizing and have been utilizing DNA in their trials.”
As for the topic Harmon will be talking about, familial DNA searching has come under fire in recent years for being an uncertain tool in solving crimes. Harmon will be exploring the ethics of this tool’s use in situations where there is a wide field of suspects involved.
Familial DNA matching utilizes a national or statewide DNA database to search for subjects of a crime by looking for DNA relatives of a partial match recovered at a given crime scene. Initially, this just involved searching among past offenders, but in recent times the criteria for DNA submission has widened.
“When the national DNA databank, called CODIS, was first established in 1998, it set up by-laws that required only convicted offenders to be placed in the databank,” Adams said. “And now, states are beginning to increas their legislation by placing arrestees’ DNA in the national databank.”
He said, “But what you’re also seeing, and what (Harmon) will be talking about, is the issue of, if you don’t get a match, but you have another profile in the databank that is close to your perpetrator, could it be that there is a relative of an individual in the databank that committed your crime? And therefore, it’s a way to expand the national databank beyond what its original intent was.”
For forensic science students, what Harmon will be talking about is not new information. Adams said that in his “Introduction to Forensics” class, which all students entering the program have to take, an entire lecture is devoted to the ethical, legal and moral issues related to familial DNA searching.
“Individuals that attend (Harmon’s talk) can come from that and make up their own mind as to whether it’s a valid use of DNA, or whether it has crossed the line,” Adams said.