Dennie Quill, Contributor
OUR NOTORIOUSLY slow judicial system came into sharp focus again this week with the news that a rape convict had been retroactively vindicated by DNA tests after four years. Stafford Webb is proof that justice delayed is justice denied. He is only one of many whose cases that are hung up in the system. This spreads across the divide of criminal and civil cases.
Although Webb's case underscored the pathetic nature of the judicial system, there was something on the plus side, for it indicated that it is possible to get justice when there is the political will to commit the necessary resources, as was done by the Ministry of Justice.
Commentary on the case has largely focused on the inability of the Government Forensic Lab to conduct speedy and accurate analyses of DNA due to the lack of equipment. DNA identification is generally considered reliable if properly done; according to Interpol, close to 100 countries now rely on DNA evidence in their courts.
REFORM THE SYSTEM
While I agree that we should improve our forensic capabilities, I want to suggest that a more appropriate response to a justice system that leads to long delays and wrongful convictions is to reform the system to ensure that prosecutors are properly equipped to do their jobs, that the physical condition of courts is improved, jurors are treated with more dignity so they will feel compelled to do their civic duty, and above all, provide the necessary training to improve the investigative skills of the police. DNA evidence alone can seldom be used to prove guilt. Yes, it can place an individual at the scene of a crime when there is biological evidence. However, there must be other evidence to link the suspect to the crime. There is no substitute for proper hard-nose police investigation.
Although the use of DNA testing is growing there have been cases and near-misses of mistaken DNA identification. For example, the MSNBC network reported that an identification mistake was avoided when the medical examiner insisted on a 99.99 per cent certainty of non-random match for the remains of a firefighter who died in the aftermath of the September 11 attack. At first the sample appeared to match another firefighter but after additional work it was shown that a closer match existed with a different person.
DNA testing is a powerful investigating tool in determining guilt and innocence, but I am about to demonstrate that it can also result in intense emotional pain. How is this for heartbreaking? A Jamaican man emigrates to the United States leaving his girlfriend and daughter behind with the promise that he is going to pave the way for them. He files for the child and a DNA test is ordered. The result comes back with the startling conclusion that the child is not his.
For 10 years this man had loved and nurtured this child, he even sees himself in the child - the way she laughs, her little gestures. For 10 years he thought this was his child, yet by a cruel stroke of science he learns this is another man's child. In Jamaican parlance: Is a jacket!
A failed paternity test is the sad reality of a growing number of Jamaicans who must now prove biological relationships as they try to satisfy the very complicated demands for family-based immigration.
BLOOD RELATIONSHIP
The U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act requires that to establish that a child born overseas acquired derivative U.S. citizenship, a blood and legal relationship must exist between the child and the U.S. citizen/parent. The onus is on the applicant to establish a claim to U.S. citizenship. According to the act, when primary and secondary documentary evidence are deemed insufficient to establish claim to U.S. citizenship, parentage blood testing is an option available to applicants.
The use of genetic data poses significant privacy issues because it serves as an identifier and can also reveal sensitive personal information about a person and one's family. The U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services recognises that this is a worrying situation, but says under the circumstances it can see no other way to establish the child's claim to U.S. citizenship.
The moral of this story is this: Women, if you are not sure about who the father of your child is, don't expose the child to this humiliating situation. A child does not deserve this retroactive discrimination.
Dennie Quill is a veteran journalist who may be reached at denniequill@hotmail.com.
