"Forensic Firsts" Begins on Smithsonian on Sunday Smithsonian Channel A scene from "Forensic Firsts," having its premiere Sunday on the Smithsonian Channel. The phrase "DNA evidence" is so common in real-life cases and on police procedurals these days that it's easy to forget how relatively new it is to the lexicon. The premiere of "Forensic Firsts," Sunday on the Smithsonian Channel, takes us back to that eureka moment in the 1980s when genetic science met police work. What makes this six-episode series doubly interesting, though, is that it doesn't revisit only the initial case in which a forensic technique was used. It also puts that technique in a more recent context, showing how it helped crack a high-profile case that everyone is likely to remember. The use of DNA evidence, the program says, was first tried in Britain, where the police were investigating two killings - one in 1983, one three years later - that they were sure were related but had a suspect who was confessing to only one of them. Scientists there had recently made news by using DNA to establish paternity in a noncriminal case, and the police wondered if the same science might somehow help pin that second murder on the suspect they had in custody. It did help their investigation, but not in the way they had expected: The DNA analysis proved that the suspect wasn't guilty even of the killing to which he had confessed. "The moment turns forensic science on its head," the narration says. The very first use of DNA profiling doesn't convict a suspect, it exonerates him. The program juxtaposes this story with the notorious case of the serial killer known as B.T.K., who terrorized Kansas over three decades. His crimes - the initials stand for "bind, torture, kill" - began well before DNA profiling was available, but DNA evidence from one of the early victims helped establish the case against Dennis L. Rader, who pleaded guilty to 10 murders in 2005. The second episode, showing June 24, takes the same approach with the science of fingerprinting, tracing its use to a murder case in Argentina in 1892. Again an untried technique led the police to a conclusion they weren't expecting. Fingerprint analysis revolutionized criminal investigation and, as the program notes, it was still coming in handy almost a century later when investigators in California were looking for the killer known as the Night Stalker: Richard Ramirez, who was arrested in 1985. Future episodes involve ballistics, bone fragments and the clues that insects - yes, insects - can provide at crime scenes. The program doesn't delve into the various debates surrounding the use of some of these techniques, and it only hints at the ethical issues a science like DNA profiling raises. But it's fascinating stuff for crime buffs, nonetheless, and each episode is also a case study in how a profession can be radically altered by a single invention or breakthrough, something that seems to be happening with increased regularity here in the digital age. Forensic Firsts Smithsonian Channel, Sunday nights at 9, Eastern and Pacific times; 8, Central time. Produced by the Smithsonian Channel, Story House Productions and Parthenon Entertainment. David Royle and Charles Poe, executive producers for Smithsonian Channel; Andreas Gutzeit and Anne Garofalo Paterno, executive producers for Story House Productions.