Celebrating 30 Years of DNA in the Courtroom (<em>CNN</em>)

Science, technology continue to advance

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This summer marks "the single greatest advance in forensic science," the first court case decided by DNA evidence.

Since that first case, when a single DNA test required 6 weeks to perform, the science and technology of DNA profiling has evolved in ways that were unimaginable back then, according to experts interviewed by CNN. Today, specialized laboratories exist across the nation and provide 24-hour turnaround on test results, using samples "we could only dream about in the early days," said Dwight E. Adams, the first FBI official to testify in a U.S. court about DNA evidence.

Labs across the nation perform more than 3 million tests a year. That number, and the accuracy associated with the tests, will continue to increase as a result of ongoing initiatives to refine and improve collection, processing, and interpretation of DNA samples, the CNN report predicted.