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DNA labs are required, by the national Quality Assurance Standards, to have a written procedure for documenting every step of the lab process from first receiving the evidence through the final report. The prosecutor should have the analyst explain the lab's system for receiving, documenting, and storing the evidence. Understanding this process prepares the prosecutor to meet and defeat any attacks on the chain of custody.
Most labs have a strict requirement regarding only receiving evidence in a sealed container. This makes it unnecessary to call every person who touched the evidence as a witness. Thus, in a sexual assault case, it is possible to call only the person who sealed the sexual assault evidence kit and the person who broke the seal in the lab. The integrity of the evidence in the kit is proven by demonstrating the seal was intact upon leaving the hand of the sexual assault nurse who took the sample from the victim and still intact when the testing was initiated by the DNA analyst.
Additional Online Courses
- What Every First Responding Officer Should Know About DNA Evidence
- Collecting DNA Evidence at Property Crime Scenes
- DNA – A Prosecutor’s Practice Notebook
- Crime Scene and DNA Basics
- Laboratory Safety Programs
- DNA Amplification
- Population Genetics and Statistics
- Non-STR DNA Markers: SNPs, Y-STRs, LCN and mtDNA
- Firearms Examiner Training
- Forensic DNA Education for Law Enforcement Decisionmakers
- What Every Investigator and Evidence Technician Should Know About DNA Evidence
- Principles of Forensic DNA for Officers of the Court
- Law 101: Legal Guide for the Forensic Expert
- Laboratory Orientation and Testing of Body Fluids and Tissues
- DNA Extraction and Quantitation
- STR Data Analysis and Interpretation
- Communication Skills, Report Writing, and Courtroom Testimony
- Español for Law Enforcement
- Amplified DNA Product Separation for Forensic Analysts