Identical DNA a problem for Georgia police: Which identical twin committed the crime?
DNA found at the scene of a murder in Georgia pointed to a felon known to the police; when he was arrested, he insisted the crime was committed by his identical twin; the two twins share identical DNA — but fingerprints, and cell phone records, pointed to the second brother, who confessed to the crime
The issue of identical DNA came to the fore recently in Georgia. The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Andria Simmons writes that in July 2008 Georgia police pulled DNA off a cigarette butt found at the scene of a carjacking that left 40-year-old schoolteacher Genai Coleman dead. Police caught a break, as that DNA matched a former felon whose DNA was already in the system.
So earlier this month, police arrested their match, Donald Smith, 51, only to find out that they had the right DNA, but the wrong man. When shown surveillance video related to the murder at Duluth, Georgia, outside of Atlanta, Donald said that police should be looking for his identical twin brother Ronald.
Police rounded up Ronald and his fingerprints to those found at the scene of the crime. Another match, this one unique to Ronald. Confronted with the DNA, surveillance video, the fingerprints, and cell phone records which showed he was in the area, police say Ronald confessed to the murder. He is currently awaiting trial at the Gwinnett County Jail.
Bradley Pearson, a former scientist at the Georgia state crime lab who has testified in more than 100 cases about DNA analysis, said that in a typical case, the odds of two people sharing the same profile are at least 10 billion to 1. There are only about 6.8 billion people on the planet. Two male identical twins, however, would have the same DNA profile. “You cannot tell the difference between which one is which,” Pearson said.
