Erroneous calculations of weight of DNA evidence may lead to miscarriage of justice in Pakistan

DNA evidence in sexual assault cases in Pakistan

Sexual assault is becoming a global epidemic, affecting close to a billion women throughout the world. This paper explores the challenges in the admissibility of DNA evidence in rape cases in Pakistan. Delays in the medical examination of victims, and improper collection and packaging of evidentiary material, compromise the probative biological evidence. In the last few years, existing laws have been amended to increase the utility of DNA evidence during criminal trials. However, various issues - for example lack of proper knowledge of DNA evidence by lawyers and judicial officers, inadequacies in existing laws and conflicting decisions of apex courts - can affect the admissibility of DNA evidence during criminal trials.

Dataset on 21 autosomal and two sex determining short tandem repeat loci in the Kedayan population in Borneo, Malaysia

This data article provides population frequencies for 21 autosomal and two sex determining short tandem repeat (STR) loci in unrelated Kedayan individuals. This article is related to the research paper entitled “Forensic parameters and ancestral fraction in the Kedayan population inferred using 21 autosomal STR loci” [1] where these same data were subjected to ancestry and forensic analyses. We have collected 200 blood samples consisting of 128 male and 72 female volunteer representatives from Kedayan people residing in various parts of Borneo. All 23 STR loci were simultaneously amplified using Globalfiler™ Express PCR and amplicons were separated using an ABI 3500xl Genetic Analyzer. The STR allele calls at each locus were called using GeneMapper^Ⓡ ID-X Software v1.4, while several algorithms in Arlequin software version 3.5 were used to estimate Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) and linkage disequilibrium (LD) between pairs of STR loci.

ForeStatistics: A windows-based feature-rich software program for performing statistics in forensic DNA analysis, paternity and relationship testing

Forensic science is one of the most modern and applied fields of science, today and comprises of various domains. These include Fingerprints analysis, Questioned document analysis, Forensic DNA and serology, Anthropometry, Cyber and Digital forensics, and many other fields. All these fields aid the process of decision making in the courts of law and legal settings; however, DNA profiling and its analyses are one of the most important aspects of forensic science today. In Forensic DNA analysis, the statistical calculations are very important to estimate the conclusiveness of DNA evidence in forensic cases; and to establish paternity and relatedness in civil and criminal matters. These statistics, when performed manually, leave a chance of error or ambiguity in the calculation, and are hectic and time-taking. Therefore, the computer-aided approaches are opted in forensics to perform DNA statistics calculations. Keeping its importance in mind, a highly accurate windows-based software program namely ForeStatistics is proposed in this study. ForeStatistics is rich in features such as DNA statistical calculations, DNA profile management and its matching. The software can estimate random match probabilities for single-source profiles, combined probability of inclusion for mixed profiles, paternity index of a disputed child in duo and trio cases, paternity of the disputed child when the alleged father is related to mother or biological father and relatedness in cases of grandparents/grandchild, avuncular relation and cousin. It is validated through different protocols and the validation of ForeStatistics depicts that it is highly accurate in terms of performing DNA statistics or DNA profile matching. Thus, it is concluded, that ForeStatistics has a great utility in the field of Forensic DNA analysis and can help DNA scientists, in performing various DNA related statistics, accurately and very efficiently. ForeStatistics can be downloaded freely from (http://zeetu.org/forestatistics.html).