DNA Testing Blog – DNA Paternity, Sibling, & Biological Family Testing

Death Penalty executions have decreased 12 percent since 2000. Specific reasons for the drop, has many states in check as to whether this type of punishment should be lawful.  States like Texas, the nation’s leader in death penalty executions, saw a drop by 29% as The New York Times reports that only 17 people faced this punishment in 2010.  The major reasons behind the decline are money, DNA testing and perhaps a dose of morality.

The death penalty is a controversial topic and the fact that there is an increase in felon exonerations through DNA testing, proves that perhaps their needs to be a further investigation before making these irreversible decisions. It’s not to say that all convicted crimes deserve a second look, but perhaps to avoid the situation of killing an innocent person, there should be a re-evaluation of this law.

Whether corporal punishment should be instilled in our country is another day, another blog, but for now it is important to look at how DNA is helping to bring a little justice to our justice system.  In addition to lack of money for these punishments, states have decided to investigate further or even decided that life with no parole is a more suitable fate.

The death penalty is such a hot topic. What is your opinion on the death penalty? Should convicted murderers receive the same fate that they gave to some innocent victim or should they serve life in a prison having to deal with shame and guilt, knowing that they took away someone’s life?

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Every Thursday night, millions of viewers gather around their television sets for a little GTL (gym, tan, laundry).  This famous acronym appropriately highlights the ritualistic behaviors of a Guido or Guidette. This Guido/Guidette lifestyle is so accurately portrayed through the cast members who make up MTV’s hit show, The Jersey Shore.

These Guidos and Guidettes get their stereotypical titles from the word ‘Guido’ which once held the meaning of a younger lower class or working class urban Italian-American. This term has since transformed into a word describing a tan-obsessed, muscle-head who pumps his or her fists at the night clubs in the epicenter of their world, New Jersey.

One of the most infamous Guidettes on the Jersey Shore is Nicole Polizzi, a.k.a Snooki.  This 4’9 Guidette has got the look and attitude, but there is speculation as to whether she really is a TRUE Guidette or not.

Shockingly, Nicole Polizzi, Snooki, “The Ultimate Guidette” is in fact NOT Italian and even more shocking is that she is also adopted! Her adoptive parents are Italian, but Snooki herself is Chilean. It’s easy to think that ALL of the cast members are full-bloodied, first generation Italians; however, this is not the case! As seen with Snooki, there are actually other cast members who would fail this true “Guido test.”

Perhaps it’s time for the REAL GTL team to come in and perform some Ancestral Origins DNA testing on the entire cast, so that viewers are no longer fooled.

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Cornelius Dupree Jr. was just 19 years old when he was sentenced to 75 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Last week, after serving 30 years in prison for the rape and robbery of a Texas woman, Dupree was finally exonerated of the crime- thanks to a DNA test that proved he was innocent all along.

One day after his release, Cornelius Dupree married Selma Perkins, a woman he met two decades ago, while he was imprisoned!

The 51 year old Texan served in prison from 1979 to 2010, when he was released on parole. He could have reduced his sentence, on two separate occasions, by admitting that he was a sex offender. However, Dupree adamantly claimed innocence, recently stating, “Whatever your truth is, you have to stick with it”.

After wrongfully serving 30 years in prison, Cornelius Dupree is the longest-serving inmate in Texas to have been exonerated by DNA evidence and, according to the Innocence Project, only two other people in U.S. history have wrongfully spent more time in prison, only to later be exonerated by DNA evidence. “It’s a great tribute to Cornelius and his spirit that he was able to fight this long and this hard to win his freedom,” said Dupree’s attorney, Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project.

Yahoo reports that the state of Texas  has freed 41 wrongfully convicted prisoner since 2001 through DNA testing and evidence- which is more than any other state in the nation. But the high number of misconvicted inmates being exonerated only occurred because police officials in Texas preserved the DNA evidence, which eventually freed Cornelius Dupree JR. and 40 other Texas prisoners. Wade Goodwyn of NPR reports, “Dallas has so many exonerations not because it was more egregiously unjust than other counties in Texas, but because unlike other jurisdictions, Dallas County kept the DNA evidence refrigerated and stored for decades. That’s what saved these men.”

Cornelius Dupree Jr. has is currently unsure how to feel about all of this. “I must admit there is a bit of anger, but there is also joy, and the joy overrides the anger,” he stated. I’m just so overwhelmed with the joy of being free.” And free he is, at last.

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