It is on a frequent basis that sexual assault cases turn into cold cases because the investigators are incapable of properly figuring out who the suspect is, while many years are passed by. It is also very important to mention the fact that it is not always the fault of the investigators. There are also many times that technology is not updated enough in order to solve the case. The DNA profiling technology was not as advanced in the past as it is now. Whenever years go by without a case being solved, it will become considered a cold case. Technology not being advanced enough to solve the cases has been a problem for a very long time. Not to mention that even today, with the advancements of technology, there are still cases being left cold.
There was one specific case that had stood out that had happened on November 4, 1992, and it had occurred in Virginia Beach. A woman from Virginia Beach had been walking home after work when a man named Robert Lee Lane passed by her on a bike. He made a remark and stated that she had looked sexy. According to Reese (2017), the woman had ignored him, Lane had then taken her from behind and the woman ended up with a knife up to her neck. The perpetrator had led the woman to a park that was close and had forced her onto a picnic table where he had sexually assaulted her while still holding the knife to her. The woman had begun to scream for her husband and at that time, Lane had run off. Once Lane ran away, the woman was able to finally run away, and she went home to call the police. A SANE, which is a Sexual Assault Nurse Examination had been done, where they had found seminal fluid, which had been held in custody by the Virginia Beach Police Department. The case had gone cold because they were unable to identify the assailant. The reason behind this was because these few decades earlier, technology was not as advance as it is now.
Because of this lack of technology, the case had gone cold and stayed cold for over 20 years. After the investigation, the only real evidence that had been recovered was the seminal fluid that had come from the SANE test that was performed on the victim. Witnesses were not present, no articles of clothing had been found, or any other form of evidence, which could have been something like fingernail scrapings from the victim. Only the seminal fluid which did not give them much to go on at that time. It is not exactly certain as to how exactly the investigators had analyzed the evidence, but it does seem certain that the lack of technology advancements from the early 90’s had played a huge part in this. When the Virginia Beach Police Department submitted the seminal fluid, the department of forensic science had gotten back a positive match. The DNA had matched Robert Lee Lane. Lane had already been serving a life sentence along with 220 years because of another rape case that had occurred in 2002, and after this case had been solved, he had entered a plea agreement in Virginia Beach Circuit Court. He had been charged with rape and abduction, with the intent to defile. Judge James C. Lewis from circuit court had issued him a 50-year sentence on top of his previous sentence. When Lane had been convicted from the 2002 case, he was charged with rape and abduction, two counts of abduction with the intent to defile, three counts of rape, and also carjacking. Lane did have prior convictions, and these were indecent liberties, 2 counts of burglary, grand larceny, and possession of cocaine.
It would make sense to say that if they did not improve the DNA technology, there are a whole lot of cases that would have become cold cases, whether they are homicide cases, or even sexual assault cases. A lot of the cases that were once cold from between 1970 to 1990, could more than likely be solved now, just by using the evidence that had be found from the first investigation. According to Vidaki, Daniel, and Court (2013), items such as underwear the victim had been wearing during the sexual assault, or a condom, or fingerprints left by the assailant, can definitely be reanalyzed and this would help to determine whose DNA had been left behind. The Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) also plays a huge role in helping to solve cold cases. CODIS was originally created to help investigate sexual assault cases that had gone cold. According to the National Institute of Justice (2010), with the assistance of CODIS, many cold cases would be able to finally be solve and it would not matter how much time had passed since the incident. When it comes to CODIS, the results would be considered more reliable when there is more than just one piece of evidence. When it came to the Robert Lee Lane case, the only available evidence that had been found was the fluid from the Sexual Assault Nurse Exam, it seems pretty unlikely that CODIS was the only program used to match the DNA from the fluid to Lane.
DNA profiling is normally established whenever there needs to be a sexual assault kit done. Whenever the profile of that DNA is created, the profile would then be added to the DNA database for National Crime. Luckily for the investigators, the 2002 case had placed Lane’s DNA into the database making it more likely that the seminal fluid would have a match. If it was not for the 2002 case, the case from 1992 would have more than likely been left cold. The biggest problem is that if a person’s DNA is not already in the system from a previous crime scene, then the case would have to stay cold until the DNA could be linked to a different case. When looking further into CODIS and DNA profiling, even though technology is advancing every day, there are still some drawbacks of the systems. CODIS is a very strong tool for the law enforcement officers to use all over the nation, and every day it gets stronger because of the data that is being added to it. Since there have been so many offenders that were convicted and lots of backlogs of the forensic framework, the law enforcement departments from the city and the states are still working on building their DNA databases.
It should also be mentioned that beings the backlogs are that big, there may be many convicted offender samples that had sat in the database untouched for years without being analyzed. When it comes to the forensic casework backlogs, there are many labs that end up being forced to prioritize their crime scene samples based on the very serious crimes and the not so serious crimes. According to the Department of Justice (2002), since October of 1999, there have been more than 180,000 sexual assault kits that were still not processed all over the country. Another very important explanation as to why cold cases are unable to be solved, whether technology is advanced or not, would be the statutes of limitation. There are many different kinds of offenses and each of these offenses have specific time limits as to when a criminal charge must be filed. It should be remembered that most of the older cases are already outside of these time limits, since they had happened decades ago. The main reason behind a statute of limitation is that as time moves forward, the reliability of the evidence greatly reduces as well. Certain types of evidence lose their credibility such as eyewitnesses, and the reason behind this is because their testimony will more than likely be entirely different decades after the case in comparison to when the crime had first occurred. If this is not the case, they could also have completely forgotten everything that had occurred, and they may cause the investigators to run into a dead end without any possibility of conviction.
Ritter (2011), made a great point when it comes to the sexual assault cases that had gone many years unprocessed. Ritter explains that these kits sitting unprocessed basically lead to a domino effect and explains what kinds of questions would be asked by certain jurisdictions. These questions may be things like: Where will the resources come from whenever there are requests about follow-up investigations or DNA analysis, especially in law enforcement agencies and crime labs that have very little room when it comes to funding? What will a law enforcement department do if a matter comes up where a DNA profile comes up, but the DNA is not already in the crime scene database or CODIS? Does it seem like there be a warrant issued for this John Doe? Lastly, let’s say an investigation does end up finding a person that could be a suspect, how will the overly tired prosecutors take on the extra work with this caseload?
The National Academic Press (1996) states that DNA profiling is definitely supported by empirical studies. It is important to realize the many different key cases from the United States, and other oversea countries such as Australia, that had occurred anywhere from 2003 and 2014 and they had been solved using this particular technology. As it is well known already, DNA will be different for every individual. No two living organisms has the same DNA. This even includes identical twins. Because of this, it is highly probable that profiling DNA has a strong possibility of identifying criminals for arrests and prosecutions. According to Wivell (2017), the technology also stands with the Daubert Standards. The Daubert Standard is a rule that is employed by court judges that is basically based on reasoning that is considered scientifically valid and that works out properly to the very specific facts that are being reviewed.
The technology of DNA profiling has been tested many times and has held up. It had also been peer reviewed and reviewed by publications and had also been known to have a very low potential error rate. This DNA profiling technology had been tested to an extreme amount and it had been constantly accepted across the whole scientific community. Not to mention that it has specific rules that assist in controlling its own operation. To make it simple, DNA forensics assist to provide different techniques that are reliable in criminal investigations. Cases that had gone cold that have to do with sexual assaults are capable of using DNA profiling technology. Even though identifying a suspect does not always lead to a prosecution, it is still good for assisting with other cases that need to be solved.
References
- Department of Justice. (2002). Using DNA to solve cold cases. NIJ Special report.
- National Research Council (US) Committee on DNA Forensic Science: An Update. (1996, January 01). The Evaluation of Forensic DNA Evidence. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK232610/
- Reese, B. (2017). Two decades later, DNA match spurs guilty plea in Virginia Beach rape case. WAVY News. Retrieved from http://www.wavy.com/news/two-decades-later-dna-match-spurs-guilty-plea-in-va-beach-rape-case/1078246779
- Ritter, N. (2011). Solving the problem of untested evidence in sexual assaults. NIJ Journal, 267, 18-20.
- Vidaki, A., Daniel, B., & Court, D. S. (2013). Forensic DNA methylation profiling—Potential opportunities and challenges. Forensic Science International: Genetics, 7(5), 499-507.
- What is CODIS? (2010, July 16). Retrieved from https://www.nij.gov/journals/266/pages/backlogs-codis.aspx
