What is the necessity of reopening cold cases and its benefits?

Over the years, serious crimes have been committed and the criminals involved were never found or duly punished for their offenses. As an example, in 1990, a number of brutal attacks were made against elderly victims in Goldsboro, and the unknown criminal was only branded the name “night stalker”, as he was never found (Walton 246). Such cases are not restricted to Goldsboro, North Carolina but are reported all over the country (Shoester 187). During one of the attacks in March 1990, an aged woman was forcefully raped and left at the point of death, except that the daughter’s arrival the next morning allowed medical care save her life (Shoester 187). In a hurry to leave the crime scene, the criminal left the items he intended to use in burning the house so that he could conceal the evidence that…

How has advancement in DNA technology contributed to reopening of cold cases?

Technological developments in the use of DNA technology have increased the possibility of finding criminals in cases that would otherwise not end up with the determination of an offender (Shoeste 65). The advancements of technology include CODIS, which provides an extremely accurate system for comparing the DNA samples collected from a crime scene and matching them to the DNA identities of criminals (Houck 113). The benefits of using this system to widen the scope of investigations are that it can help to reduce the incidences where convicted offenders continue to commit crimes anonymously. One such case that demonstrated the effectiveness of the CODIS system is that of an offender that…

Describe how change of laws contributed to reopening of cold cases

In the past, there was no legal framework to exonerate suspects that are innocent and tracing the real offenders that committed a given crime. The developments that have recently been made in areas like the use of DNA technology to investigate crimes have increased the admissibility of the evidence that would otherwise not be accepted, in a court. For example, the admissibility of DNA information in court as evidence has changed the fate of the victims that were attacked by criminals but had no witnesses to support their accusation (Shoeste 189). Among the suspects that have been wrongfully convicted and send to…

How has the change of legal models contributed to reopening of cold cases?

The advancement of crime investigation technologies, including the use of DNA has encouraged criminal investigation agencies to develop new models for addressing cold cases. In the past, the lack of sufficient evidence to indicate that a given suspect was the one that committed a crime was likely to render the case inconclusive (Shoeste 190). However, during the current time, the evidence rendered unusable earlier can be further probed and the possible suspect or the real criminal found. This development and change of legal model is crucial for the suspects that were arrested wrongfully, or the cases that have not led to any arrests. In the case of wrongfully accused defendants, the probing of evidence can result in the discovery of the DNA links that lead to…