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The Blooding

by Joseph Wambaugh

While Wambaugh usually writes fiction, he broke from his mold and wrote this nonfiction book about DNA evidence. He wrote about the FIRST time DNA was used to exonerate a suspect, and also how DNA was used (in the same case) to convict a suspect. The book is a good tale of how the British government obtained blood from all men in a certain area of Britain (which would never happen in the USA) to use the new technology provided by Sir Alec John Jeffreys. Jeffreys's research had only been used once prior to this case, and that was to determine a citizenship issue.

Being a police/crime writer, Wambaugh does get bogged down in the case work and the investigators, but read on - the science is good.

I find copies of this book at every used book store I enter - and I buy them to place in the school library.

And then read "Pointing from the Grave" by Samantha Weinberg - you'll be glad you did.

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