New DNA testing has prompted a judge to toss out a life sentence for the man convicted in the brutal 1996 murder of an elderly woman that shook a tiny northern Michigan town. A Circuit Court judge this week ordered a new trial for 39-year-old Jamie Lee Peterson, whose case was profiled by NBC News in December. The order was based largely on new DNA testing that implicated another man in the crime. Prosecutors must now decide whether to retry Peterson, who remains in prison, for the brutal October 1996 rape and slaying of Geraldine Montgomery, a 68-year-old former schoolteacher, in Kalkaska, Michigan, a town of about 2,200 residents in the northern reaches of the state. Lawyers and law students from the University of Michigans Innocence Clinic and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Michigan University were instrumental in persuading the state to retest DNA evidence using technology unavailable at the time. The new results excluded Peterson, bolstering the argument his supporters and attorneys have made for years -- that he has been imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. "False confessions, especially by those who are cognitively impaired, are very real. It's truly thrilling, said A.J. Dixon, a … Continue reading →

SPRINGFIELD A new state law gives defendants who plead guilty a chance to use DNA evidence to clear their name if the evidence were not available during trial. The law most likely will be used in cases of murder and rape, but could be used for other cases in which DNA evidence would come into play, said sponsoring Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago. The change is not expected to open the floodgates to new DNA appeals, but removes Illinois from a list of only a handful of states that blocked such testing following a guilty plea. Post-trial DNA testing was a very limited opportunity. This makes it a little less limited, said Matt Jones, associate director of the states attorneys appellate prosecutor office. Under the law signed by Gov. Pat Quinn on Friday, a defendant will need to present a pretty solid case to a judge that new evidence had been found that could lead to overturning the conviction in a guilty plea. A judge will need to find that a defendant had a reasonable probability of being acquitted had the evidence been available when the case went to court. The law took effect immediately. Its an important element to make … Continue reading →

Every day our DNA breaks a little. Special enzymes keep our genome intact while were alive, but after death, once the oxygen runs out, there is no more repair. Chemical damage accumulates, and decomposition brings its own kind of collapse: membranes dissolve, enzymes leak, and bacteria multiply. How long until DNA disappears altogether? Since the delicate molecule was discovered, most scientists had assumed that the DNA of the dead was rapidly and irretrievably lost. When Svante Pbo, now the director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, first considered the question more than three decades ago, he dared to wonder if it might last beyond a few days or weeks. But Pbo and other scientists have now shown that if only a few of the trillions of cells in a body escape destruction, a genome may survive for tens of thousands of years. In his first book, Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes, Pbo logs the genesis of one of the most groundbreaking scientific projects in the history of the human race: sequencing the genome of a Neanderthal, a human-like creature who lived until about 40,000 years ago. Pbos tale is part heros journey and part … Continue reading →

Researchers may have overcome this obstacle with the development of a biochip that contains an array of artificial cells that enable the precise study of how gene expression changes with time. This system could be used to investigate how different cells change their activity as development proceedsor in response to environmental changes. The biochip was constructed by assembling bundles of DNA on the surface of circular silicon compartments (50 m radius and 1-3 m height). Thin capillaries were used to connect DNA compartments to a channel that provided nutrients and energy. Researchers were able to observe stablegene expression andexpression patterns that changed over time by tracking the presence of green fluorescent protein (GFP) expressed from the DNA. When the DNA bundles contained a gene that encodes GFP, the green glow showed a sharp onset after a two-hour delay, with steady-state levels reached in about eight hours. To look at more complex gene expression, the researchers put in the genes for a network of activators and repressors. Oscillatory gene expression dynamics, where GFP levels cycle through peaks and declines over 2.5 hours, were tracked via its green glow. Embryonic development is dependent on spatial arrangement of cells and their communication with … Continue reading →

Defense attorneys Bobby Kaplan, left, and Pete Rost, right, with their client, Andrew Gustafson, center. THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER Enlarge | Buy This Photo Published: Tuesday, 8/19/2014 - Updated: 51 seconds ago BY JENNIFER FEEHAN BLADE STAFF WRITER The DNA sample that allegedly links a former Swanton Township man to the 1983 murder of Janean Brown was obtained in 2007 without a warrant by detectives who were investigating an unrelated sexual assault at the time, defense attorneys argued Monday. Andrew Gustafson, 57, of Birch Run, Mich., is asking Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Gary Cook to suppress the DNA evidence as well as statements he made to investigators in 1983 and in 2013 about the slaying of Ms. Brown, 19, of Whitehouse. Mr. Gustafson is charged with two counts of aggravated murder and one count of murder in the death of Ms. Brown, whose body was found Nov. 19, 1983 in a ditch near Mr. Gustafsons home. Her throat had been cut. In court Monday, retired Lucas County Sheriffs Det. Sgt. Daryll Symington recalled interviewing Mr. Gustafson at his home the day after Ms. Browns remains were found along Archbold-Whitehouse Road, saying Mr. Gustafson was not a suspect at that time … Continue reading →