Mar 8, 2007 10:05 pm US/Central
TX Solves 1000th Cold Case Thanks To DNA Evidence
by Robert Riggs
DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ―
DNA is also being used to clear the wrongly convicted.
Now a database of DNA evidence has reached a milestone in Texas: one thousand cold hits.
Cold hits are unexpected DNA matches that crack unsolved cases or link multiple unsolved crimes.
In Texas, the program has helped solve over a thousand murders, sexual assaults, burglaries and robberies. In some cases, wrongly convicted persons have been cleared.
DNA evidence solved a seven-year-old murder case.
It was a horrific attack on a newlywed couple that had only been married ten days.
Mesquite Police Sergeant Mike Bradshaw returned to the scene of the 1993 murder.
The killer staged his evening attack on the jogging trail at Eastfield College.
"Neither one of them had any money," said Sgt. Bradshaw. "They had nothing on them. They didn't have a purse or a wallet or anything like that."
Alvin Braziel shot the husband in cold blood and raped the wife. The survivor's description produced a very accurate forensic sketch of Braziel at the time, but he remained unidentified for seven years.
That is, until DNA from the rape broke the case wide open.
"The name was Alvin Braziel, who was in a state penitentiary for an unrelated sex crime," said Sgt. Bradshaw.
The DPS crime lab in Garland entered DNA evidence from the case into a computer database of DNA collected from thousands of convicted felons that included Braziel.
It's called CODIS or the Combined DNA Index System.
The lab can extract DNA from something as small as the root of a hair or a blood stain the size of a needle point.
"A lot of police agencies are going back into their unsolved case files and researching to determine whether there's any evidence that may still exist that might lend possible DNA results," said Lorna Beasley, DNA lab supervisor.
The Dallas County District Attorney started reviewing hundreds of cases of possible innocence.
A DNA review of three dozen sample cases found 13 people serving prison time for crimes they did not commit.
"We felt the responsible and reasonable thing to do was to look at all of the cases that we have to determine if anyone else is in prison that didn't commit the crime," said Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins.
DNA left no doubt that Braziel committed murder. Now he's on death row.
(CBS 11 News)
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