when was forensic evidence first used in court
Forensic science Forensic DNA analysis was first used in 1984. It was developed by Sir Alec Jefferys, who realized that variation in the genetic code could be used to identify individuals and to tell individuals apart from one another. The first application of DNA profiles was used by Jefferys in a double murder mystery in a small England town called Narborough, Leicestershire in 1985. A 15-year-old school girl by the name of Lynda Mann was raped and murdered in Carlton Hayes psychiatric hospital. The police did not find a suspect but were able to obtain a semen sample.
Fingerprint Although ancient peoples probably did not realize that fingerprints could uniquely identify individuals,[61] references from the age of the Babylonian king Hammurabi (reigned 1792-1750 BCE) indicate that law officials would take the fingerprints of people who had been arrested.[62] During China's Qin Dynasty, records have shown that officials took hand prints, foot prints as well as finger prints as evidence from a crime scene.[63] In China, around 300 CE, handprints were used as evidence in a trial for theft. By 650, the Chinese historian Kia Kung-Yen remarked that fingerprints could be used as a means of authentication.[64] In his Jami al-Tawarikh (Universal History), the Persian physician Rashid-al-Din Hamadani (also known as "Rashideddin", 1247â€“1318) refers to the Chinese practice of identifying people via their fingerprints, commenting: "Experience shows that no two individuals have fingers exactly alike."[65] In Persia at this time, government documents may have been authenticated with thumbprints.[citation needed]