Jessica Lie
Science 8.1
Mr. Ken
August 29, 2014
One World Essay
Many people have been sent for up to a lifetime in jail because of a fault in the science department. Dr. Pamela Fish has sentenced not only one, but eight innocent people to jail, the most discussed being a man named John Willis.
Pamela Fish was originally one of the head DNA experts – having earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in biology - but she has since been stripped of her position. In around 1980, in Cook County, Illinois, was an incident of numerous sexual assaults. John Willis, an illiterate man and a self-proclaimed petty thief, was one of the several suspects. However, he insists on being innocent, despite the testimonies of the eyewitnesses.
Dr. Pamela Fish was assigned to analyze and match up the suspects’ DNA and to confirm the identity of the criminal, given only a scrap of tissue with traces of bodily liquid. After a long while, information was gleamed from the DNA sample. Pamela had insisted that the rapist had type B blood – strong evidence since Willis also possessed type B. This was later proved to be false, as the DNA soon was revealed to come from someone with type A blood instead. In addition to the false information, jurors believed the…show more content… After further analysis, scientists confirmed that the DNA belonged to this man, not Willis. Because of this error, Dr. Edward Blake was called in to investigate the case. Dr. Blake found out that Fish was careless and was giving false testimonies about the suspects; she was protecting the criminal and framing others – especially John Willis. After three more men were put in jail wrongly due to the false ‘evidence’ Pamela Fish was entrusted with, she was refused a re-hire after her employment papers expired. Fish can no longer cause harm to innocent suspects. Willis, on the other hand, was given a settlement by the state to make up for his wrongful