Convicted by Juries, Exonerated by Science

   A Crime they did not Commit:

   Her four year old son.  This was the only eyewitness to the rape and murder of your best friend.  Three suspects, all sent to jail though the child continually said there had been only one.  Now you've learned that none of them are responsible, two serving 30 years in prison, the other dying there.  This is the story of Phillip Bivens, convicted with a life sentence for a crime he did not commit, and serving 30 years of that sentence before he was exonerated and released.

   He and two others, Larry Ruffin and Bobby Ray Dixon, were convicted of raping and killing a woman in her home.  All three pled guilty to the crime under the threat of the death penalty.  The confessions were factually inaccurate and were inconsistent with each other yet they were all sent to because Bivens and Dixon testified and Ruffin's trial in exchange for life sentences.  Ruffin, unfortunately, died while he was still there.  However, the DNA from the victim's clothing was put through testing and it didn't match the DNA of any of the suspects, but another man's who two years later committed a similar crime and was caught and convicted.

   After this evidence was found, there was an immediate application for their exoneration.  Dixon, who had suffered seizures his entire life, was released on medical parole in 2010 when they found he had lung cancer.  Bivens was finally exonerated as well in December 2010, only a few months after Dixon.

   The Progression of DNA Technologies:

   DNA technologies have come a long way in a few short years.  They started with Gregor Mendel, the "Father of Genetics", when he discovered the Law of Segregation, the Law of Independent Assortment, and the Law of Dominance from his work with pea plants.
   Rosalind Franklin was also an incredible contributor to this development, helping us better understand the double helix structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (or DNA).  She worked with Maurice Wilkins in this study, and it ultimately helped James Watson and Francis Crick with their own work.  From Franklin's photograph of DNA, they deduced the size and build of DNA as well as Chargoff's rules (Adenine with Thymine and Cytosine with Guanine).  On their own, they also found more about the build such as how the bases face in and the phosphates and sugars outward, and about Hydrogen bonding.  Also they suggested a model for the replication of DNA that would allow a DNA molecule to be copied.
   Meselson and Stahl's experiment showed that DNA replication is semi-conservative, meaning that each old strand (half of the old double helix) becomes the template for a new strand of DNA.

   DNA technology boomed from 1977-2000.  in 1977, the first human protein was produced from a transgenic bacterium.  This is bacterium from a different species.  This is considered the arrival and begging of the age of Biotechnology.  A method was created for sequencing DNA, RFLP analysis was discovered, transgenic mice were produced after a ruling from the Supreme Court, a method for identification by DNA fingerprinting was produced, the sheep Dolly was cloned, and much much more in that short time.  This was the development of biotechnology as we know it today.

My Own Thoughts...

   From this unit and this story, I will take away a lot.  For the longest time, courts and trials were pretty much only reliant on eyewitness accounts and alibis.  This man sat in jail, missing out on thirty years of his life, for a crime he didn't commit.  I'm much more aware of and grateful for DNA testing because that should never have happened.  I suppose I'm a little frustrated with the justice system as well because biotechnology is fairly young and sins and murders are almost as old as the human race itself.  I can't help but wonder how many innocent people were sent to jail, and how much that changed things for them.  What do you even do in a position like that?  This unit has helped shaped my views on science itself because of how many lives it changes for the better with the use of biotechnology and similar things.  This was very interesting and I am very interested in learning more as the year progresses.