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Ninteen Years Gone: Using DNA Testing to Catch the Crimals Essay

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Nineteen Years Gone Nineteen years seems like a long time to the average person, but for those in jail it can seem like an eternity. Nineteen years for a wrongly convicted man would be devastating. That happens way too often in this world, people are coerced into a confession for a crime that they did not commit. So how, with all of our technology now are they still locked away behind bars? How can people just sit by and let innocent men rot away in prison while the true perpetrator of the crime is still at large? DNA, that is how. DNA testing is a fairly recent development that has allowed many wrongly convicted men to walk free after spending decades of their life in a cell. For Frank Sterling this is exactly how it happened. He…show more content…
The case ran cold for lack of proof for more than two years. (The National Registry of Exonerations, 2012) In 1991 a new investigative team attempted to tackle this case in hopes of obtaining justice. Sterling agreed to an interview with police just after finishing a 36 hour long haul trucking shift. Sterling insisted upon his innocence. The interrogators attempted to utilize several unorthodox methods including hypnosis and suggestion of details in order to solicit a confession from who they thought was the culprit. After more than 8 hours of these types of tactics and being shown photographs of the scene, Sterling was arrested after he shouted, “I did it, I need help.” (The National Registry of Exonerations, 2012) After a very inconsistent videotaped confession, Sterling was charged with and convicted of second degree murder. This conviction was based solely on the confession with no evidence presented. He was convicted on September 29, 1992 and sentenced to 25 years in prison. The only other suspect in the case was a man named Mark Christie, of Rochester. He provided the police with a false alibi that they believed and did not question him any further. (The National Registry of Exonerations, 2012) It was not until 2004 that DNA testing was conducted at the insistence of Sterling and his lawyers. This result showed that Christie, who was in prison for the murder of a 4 year old girl in 1994, was the true culprit of this heinous crime. This DNA evidence
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