An Introduction to Forensic DNA Analysis, Second Edition
Norah Rudin, Keith Inman

List Price:  $74.95

Hardcover: 312 pages

Publisher: CRC Press; 2nd edition (December 21, 2001)

ISBN: 0849302331

Other Editions: Paperback (1st) | All Editions

This excellent book gives a primer, and then supplies details, on the techniques that are used in “DNA fingerprinting.”  Inman works at the California Department of Justice Laboratory that is cataloging the DNA fingerprints of every inmate in prison in the State of California.  This has interesting inserts with real cases, including a dot blot of the O.J. case.  JdK

DNA Technology in Forensic Science
National Res Council (Editor), National Research Council, Committee on DNA Technology in Forensic

List Price:  $37.95

Paperback: 185 pages

Publisher: National Academy Press; (March 1992)

ISBN: 0309045878

Evaluation of Forensic DNA Evidence: Update on Evaluating DNA Evidence
National Research Council, National Research Council Committee

List Price:  $45.95

Hardcover: 254 pages

Publisher: National Academy Press; (December 1996)

ISBN: 0309053951

The first report was the initial effort by the National Academy of Sciences to address the reliability of DNA evidence.  That report began the impression that DNA evidence was “bulletproof.”  This report later came under a barrage of criticism that triggered the second report. JdK

Convicted by Juries, Exonerated by Science: Case Studies in the Use of DNA Evidence to Establish Innocence After Trial
Edward Connors

List Price:  $25.00

Plastic Comb:

Publisher: DIANE Publishing Co; (February 1996)

ISBN: 0788131257

This has a list of cases of people who were wrongly accused of crimes and convicted (usually by eye-witnesses who seemed to the juries to be reliable) and subsequently released after DNA evidence proved that they were not the perpetrator.  JdK

Actual Innocence: When Justice Goes Wrong and How to Make It Right
Jim Dwyer, Peter Neufeld, Barry Scheck

List Price:  $7.50

Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages

Publisher: Signet; Reissue edition (March 6, 2001)

ISBN: 0451203658

In-Print Editions: Audio Download (Audible.com) | All Editions

Scheck and Neufeld run “The Innocence Project” that reopens old cases of prisoners and applies DNA evidence to prove innocence.  Barry Scheck won the O.J. case by dismantling virtually every piece of physical evidence.   Jim Dwyer is an author that has followed the progress of the innocence cases for a long time.  JdK

The Casebook of Forensic Detection: How Science Solved 100 of the World's Most Baffling Crimes
Colin Evans (Author)

List Price: $17.95

Paperback: 310 pages

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons; 1 edition (October 16, 1998)

ISBN: 047128369X

Other Editions: Hardcover | All Editions

These cases cover forensic evidence of all types, but include several key cases where DNA evidence was first used to secure a conviction.  JdK

Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist
by William R. Maples, Michael Browning (Contributor)

List Price:  $15.95

Paperback: 304 pages

Publisher: Main Street Books; (October 1995)

ISBN: 0385479689

Other Editions: Hardcover | All Editions

This is an interesting book by the forensic anthropologist who worked on several historical mysteries including the death of the Romanovs.  JdK

Blood Trail: True Crime Mysteries Solved by DNA Detectives
Gerald, Judge Sheindlin, Catherine Whitney (Contributor), Gerlad Sheindlin, Gerald W. Sheindlin

Out of print

Paperback: 211 pages

Publisher: Ballantine Books; (December 1996)

ISBN: 0345402804

Sheindlin was the judge in the Castro case, a key case where DNA evidence played a key role for the first time.  In that case, Barry Scheck defended the accused, and dismantled the prosecutions’ DNA evidence.  JdK

The Run of His Life
Jeffery Toobin

Paperback

Publisher: Random House Value Publishing; (September 1998)

ISBN: 0517268000

The definitive O.J. book by an excellent journalist who also has a law degree.  The key part of interest to biotechnologists describes how lawyer Barry Scheck won the trial for O.J. by destroying the prosecution’s case by attacking the way that each piece of evidence had been collected. JdK

The Blooding
Joseph Wambaugh

List Price: $7.50

Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages

Publisher: Bantam ; Reissue edition (November 1989)

ISBN: 0553282816

Other Editions: Hardcover | All Editions

Wambaugh, the author of “The Onion Field” and other police true life or fictional accounts, wrote this work about the murders in the English Midlands where the first application of DNA fingerprinting techniques flushed out the murderer and led to the solution of the crimes.  JdK