OC

Jenn posted about the Innocence Project, which has to do with proving convicted criminals innocent using DNA evidence. DNA evidence is some pretty crazy stuff. I've read a lot about some aspects of forensics, and if I recall correctly, The best place to recover DNA from a human body is tooth pulp. It's well-preserved, since teeth are nearly indestructible, but it only yields a tiny amount. However, they've been using DNA recovered from the teeth and long bones of 650-year-old victims of the black plague to identify them, and even find their descendents. It's also being used to identify what the black plague actually was, since it's been disputed. (The general descriptions point to the bubonic variety, but there are differing opinions.)

DNA can be used to identify the perpetrator of almost any crime, provided they left something behind. Saliva, skin, blood, urine, anything. Which is exactly why it's so incredibly useful in freeing innocent people who have been wrongfully convicted. As long as the evidence is correctly preserved and cared for at the time of conviction, (frozen, etc) it can still be used quite a while later, and remain viable. It's great that innocent people have been freed upon review of evidence. I actually remember an article in the Dispatch not too long ago about a guy who was being freed and pardoned because he had been wrongfully convicted years before...