Hoffman looked at his watch. “We better go,” he said.
“When Forsythe says ten minutes, he generally means ten minutes.”
Inside the courtroom, the gallery was rustling with spectators trying to get settled into seats before Forsythe entered.
The court officer had just begun his announcement when Forsythe swept past him, took his seat at the bench, and rapped his gavel twice.
“General Collier, let’s go. Call your next witness.”
Collier stood quickly. “The state calls Ms. Patricia Hooper.”
Taylor watched as a woman about thirty, if that, walked into the courtroom and took the witness stand. She was thin and pale, as if she rarely got outside. She wore narrow wire-rimmed glasses and little makeup. She seemed nervous as the court officer swore her in.
“Ms. Hooper, tell us please your place of employment,”
Collier instructed.
“I’m employed at the Nashville Crime Laboratory of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.”
“And what is your job description there?”
“My job title is special agent, forensic science supervisor. Basically, I’m a biotechnician attached to the Serology/
DNA Unit.”
“And what does the Serology/DNA Unit of the TBI do?”
“Our job is to perform identification and characterization of blood and other bodily fluids like semen or saliva. We also perform DNA profiling to determine if the DNA of a person suspected of committing a crime is present at a crime scene.”
“And, Ms. Hooper, what are your educational qualifica-tions as a forensic science supervisor?”
“I hold a bachelor of arts degree from Vanderbilt University with honors in chemistry, and a master’s degree in bio-chemistry from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.”
“How long have you been employed with the TBI?”
“Four years.”
Taylor felt her backside going numb as she sat there listening to this dry testimony. The woman’s voice was monotone, professional, and profoundly boring. The courtroom was quiet, still, almost stifling. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly and wished that this was all over.
“Ms. Hooper,” Collier continued, “can you explain to us, in layperson’s terms, what forensic DNA analysis is, how it works, and what it means in the process of investigating a homicide.”
“Certainly. In its simplest terms, DNA is material in our bodies that governs inheritance of eye color, hair color, stat-ure, bone density, and a long list of other human traits. DNA is a long but narrow stringlike object so tiny that a one-foot-long string of DNA is packed into a space roughly equal to a cube that measures one-millionth of an inch on its side …”
Taylor listened as the woman droned on for another ten minutes. She described the way DNA strands were named and characterized in strange combinations of letters and terms that seemed complicated beyond comprehension.
“… the locus on chromosome four, GYPA, is particularly useful for forensic DNA testing because it’s polymorphic, which means it takes different forms in different chromosomes. Each of the forms is called an allele …”
Even the jury was starting to glaze over. Taylor looked over at the defense table. Michael sat there, expressionless, staring. Not much color in his face, Taylor thought.
The young woman on the witness stand droned on, mo-notonously, tediously. Taylor found it incomprehensible that something so dry could be so crucial, yet she knew it was.
“Now, Ms. Hooper,” Collier said after the primer on DNA was complete, “tell us what kind of tests you use to identify and characterize the samples you receive.”
“We use the latest technology to profile DNA samples, which is the PCR/STR process. PCR is an acronym for polymerase chain reaction, and STR is an acronym standing for short tandem repeat.”
“Ms. Hooper, without going into too much technical detail here, what does the PCR/STR process allow a forensic investigator to do?”
“The technological advances of PCR/STR give us the ability to identify and profile a sample based on much less material and material that might not be analyzable under older tests because of degradation issues.”
“So it takes much less of a sample to provide an identification.”
“That’s correct. In that sense, it’s much more reliable. And it’s much more discriminating. The FBI has established its accuracy down to one in two hundred and sixty billion.”
“In other words, a match using this test is pretty well absolute.”
Talmadge shot up. “Objection, Your Honor. Calls for a conclusion.”
Collier turned and glared at Talmadge. “Your Honor, the court has already accepted Ms. Hooper as an expert witness.
She’s qualified and entitled to draw these kinds of conclusions.”
“Objection overruled. Continue, Ms. Hooper.”
Patricia Hooper nodded. “Yes, I would characterize a positive identification as absolute.”
“Very well. In February of last year, did you receive a series of forensic evidence packets from the scene of a double homicide at an establishment here in Nashville called Exotica Tans?”
“Yes, I did.”
“In your expert opinion, were proper procedures followed in the protection of this evidence, to avoid contamination and degradation?”
“Well, I wasn’t at the crime scene, but when the evidence was presented to me, it appeared to have been properly preserved.”
“And what did the evidence primarily consist of?”
“There were approximately eighty separate packets of evidence, the bulk of which were blood and tissue samples.
There were also some hair samples found as well. And some skin tissue.”
“Were you able to type these samples, to determine from whom they came?”
“Yes, we were.”
“And what were your conclusions?”
“Virtually all the samples contained DNA resident in the bodies of the two victims, Ms. Burnham and Ms. Matthews.”
“Were you able to identify any other DNA that was ex-cluded from that belonging to the two victims?”
“Well,” she said, hesitating, “you have to consider the circumstances of the crime scene. The homicides were committed at an establishment where, to put it delicately, one was likely to find traces of other bodily fluids. We were provided with hair samples and semen samples that we were able to profile, but not to match with anyone else.”
“On or about April thirtieth of last year,” Collier asked,
“were you provided a sample of hair and saliva that were obtained from the defendant as a result of a search warrant?”
“Yes, I was.”
“Were you able to type and identify those samples?”
“I was.”
“And were you able to match any of the samples at the Exotica Tans crime scene with the sample derived from the defendant?”
“No, sir, none of the samples matched.”
“So you have no samples from the Exotica Tans homicide scene that positively place the defendant there?”
“That’s correct,” Ms. Hooper said.
