Previously unusable DNA sample now evidence in N.J. quadruple murder trial of Paul Caneiro

Lawyers for Paul Caneiro who is charged with the brutal murders of four of his relatives are challenging the use of an increasingly common tool in DNA analysis.

Lawyers for a New Jersey man charged with the brutal murders of four of his relatives are challenging the use of an increasingly common tool that has transformed DNA analysis in dozens of labs across the United States, saying the technique hasn’t been properly vetted for use in criminal courts.

A weekslong pretrial hearing about STRmix, which allows forensic analysts to test DNA samples that most likely would have been considered unusable a decade ago because they were too complex or small, ended this month in a Monmouth County courtroom in the case of Paul Caneiro, who has denied killing his family in 2018.

While Caneiro’s defense lawyers and experts have argued that the software hasn’t been proved reliable in the same way “safety-critical” systems used in cars and airplanes are — and that it could produce false results that could help wrongfully convict someone — prosecutors have argued that STRmix has been tested and tried in labs and courts across the country.

The “motivation is to actually test the software well, try and break it if we can, and, if we miss something, just honestly report what has happened,” one of STRmix’s developers, John Buckleton, testified last month, according to a transcript. 

“I don’t want to contribute to an injustice ever,” he added.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/paul-caneiro-murder-trial-dna-rcna185278

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