Jennifer Giancarlo
Scientific Illustration, Medico-legal Illustration

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Verbal analogies have been created in an attempt to connect the understanding of DNA evidence findings to a non-scientific-educated person’s everyday experience — we only understand things in context of our experience. While such verbal analogies may be effective, people tend to understand and believe what they see more than what they hear. People also tend to remember what they see better than what they hear. Since the beginning of 1988, the Orange County (California) District Attorney’s Office has closed over 170 cases using forensic DNA evidence. In several cases, the only physical evidence available to prosecutors was forensic DNA evidence. In 1995, six courtroom panels illustrating the concepts of DNA, VNTRs and inheritance, PCR and typing methods for RFLP and HLA-DQ alpha loci were developed for use by Orange County prosecutors. This presentation will address the reactions of prosecutors, judges, jurors and expert witnesses to the visual presentation of forensic DNA evidence. The panels will be shown and rationale for the design of each illustrated panel will be discussed.