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Show Sunday, January 26, 1997 The Daily Herald Kid stows games bring hours of delight OK, here's a nostalgia question: What childhood game does this remind you of? "Colonel Mustard in the library with a candlestick." If you answered. "Spin the Bottle," then I frankly do not want to know any more about your childhood. What I'm referring to is of course the classic board game "Clue," in which you Davo Dairy TVTu The Miami Herald try to solve a murder by using a logical process of deduction to narrow down the various possibilities until your sister has to go to the bathroom, at which point you cheat by looking at the answer cards. At least that was always my strategy. In Monopoly, my strategy was to be the car. The car was one of the little metal game-boar- d pieces; the other ones, as I recall, were the hat. the dog, the shoe, the guy on the horse, and the iron. I never wanted to be the shoe, and I definitely did not want to be the iron. I wanted to be the car because I could make car noises by vibratbrrrrmmmmm ing my lips and drive the car around on the floor to amuse myself w hile waiting my turn, which is mainly what you do in Monopoly, w hich I always considered to be one of the most boring activities on the planet. But I had friends who LOVED it; w hen we played, they became insane money-graspin- g capitalist pigs. They'd crouch next to the game board. looking over the tops of their hotels with greed-craze- d eyes, watching me throw the dice, waiting for the little car to come around the corner, motoring innobrrrrmmmmm cently along HAH!! until it stopped on Boardwalk, and they'd triumphantly announce that I owed them some huge amount of pretend money that they knew to the exact pretend cost of landing on Boardwalk without looking at the cards. I'm not saying that ALL of these friends went on to become attorneys, but it is a healthy percentage. I w ill say this about Monopoly: I w as better at it than at chess. My problem w ith chess was that all my pieces wanted to end the game as soon as possible. "Let's get this over w ith!" was their battle cry. If the rules had allowed it. my pieces would all have charged out onto the board simultaneously the instant the game started. Unfortunately, this w as not legal, so they had to content themselves with charging out one at a time, pretty much at random, and immediately getting captured. Here's what it thev sounded like: PAWNS: Oh no! Thev got the Knight! KING: Darn it! BISHOP: I II go next! KING: Good luck! PAWNS: Oh no! They got the Bishop! KING: Darn it! QUEEN: I'll go next! KING: Good luck! PAWNS: Oh no! They got the Queen! KING: Good! I mean. Dam it! Because of the level of my even chess game. I w as able against a weak opponent, such as my y ounger brothers, or the dog to get myself checkmated in under three minutes. I challenge it any computer to do faster. The one board game that I still I it play is Scrabble. like because, unlike most other board games, which basically are pointless in Scrabble you can do something mentally stimulating and worthwhile: make naughty words. There is nothing quite like the sense of intellectual accomplishment that comes from spelling out. say. knowing that it will be sitting there on the board for hours, staring up at vour opponents. The problem with Scrabble is that it leads to arguments like this: (See BARKY. Page AIO) valdu If By MATT CRENSON AP Science Editor It was one WASHINGTON n of those things. Not long after she was raped, an Indiana woman thought she spotted her assailant on the street. Police arrested the man, took his blood and sent it to a crime lab for DNA analysis. Robert Flowers said he hadn't committed the crime, and lab results showed he was telling the truth: His DNA didn't match the rapist's. But it came so close, the could laboratory just had to ask Robert Flowers have a brother? He could, and he did. And. eventually. brother was Robert's look-alik- e convicted of the rape. In cases like that, DNA evidence seems to have almost supernatural powers to clear the innocent and convict the guilty. But, 10 years after it first was used in a U.S. courtroom, questions persist about how such evidence is employed. "People come up to me and " they ask, is this stuff any good?' assisformer a Harlan Levy, says tant district attorney in New York City and a staunch supporter of DNA fingerprinting. "1 think it's amazing that 10 years into this technology, people are still asking that." After years of debate over population variability, the genetic patterns of isolated ethnic groups and other arcane issues, lawyers and scientists finally agree that DNA testing can match the blood or semen recovered at a crime scene to a given individual. What they don't agree on is what that match means. "I'm not against DNA technology. I'm just against stupid uses of it." said William Thompson, a law professor at the University of California at Irvine and a member of O.J. Simpson's defense team. Simpson's defense illustrates how the debate has changed in the last decade. In the early days, the defense might have argued that the blood matched to Simpson through DNA analysis could have belonged to somebody else. But that's not common any more; DNA testing has proven itself as a means of identification comparable in reliability to fingerprinting. So defense lawyers didn't waste time arguing that the incriminating samples attributed to Simpson really belonged to somebody else. Instead, they contended that every bit of DNA evidence could be explained by mishandling, laboratory contamination or the planting of evidence. That argument raised questions the prosecution couldn't answer. Thompson said, which is why the jury acquitted Simpson. But things might have turned out differently a decade ago. when lawyers were less sophisticated about DNA evidence and the debate centered on the probability of a coincidental match between blood or semen found at a crime scene and that of an innocent defendant. That issue, which has become chance-in-a-millio- DNA much less important in recent years, frequently leads to misconceptions about DNA evidence by attorneys, judges and juries. First of all. a DNA match doesn't prove a person committed a r "v Hi- T v.V - i l v "DNA is the best tool for identifying the innocent and the guilty that we have." Harlan Levy, former prosecutor ITT crime; additional evidence almost always is needed for a conviction. But defense lawyers worry that juries give a match more weight AP photo than it deserves. double-murde- r at O.J. the board a and 1995, Prosecution witness Robin Cotton, scientist May 9, Simpson When a DNA match is introtrial in Los Angeles. DNA fingerprinting is a how DNA strands differ from duced in court, it almost always is expert in DNA, explains one another using DNA models on an evidence powerful tool in court cases. presented with a number known as random-match a probability. But DNA fingerprinting nobody, DNA experts complain, seems to understand what that DNA is in the DNA analysis has been used for 1 0 years as number means. section of the hair evidence in United States criminal cases. embedded in the The random-matc- h probability before scalp is an estimate of the chance that a About DNA being shed. randomly selected person will Cells make up every tissue and organ in the body. Every By MATT CRENSON share the DNA pattern present in cell has a nucleus, which contains DNA (deoxyribonucleic AP Science Editor both the defendant and the sample acid), the chemical "blueprint" containing the hereditary Cell 1987. serial On Nov. from the crime scene. In most casinstructions for the structure and function of the body. DNA es, the random-matc- h resembles a twisted zipper, with each tooth represented by probability rapist Tommy Lee Andrews is one in a million, one in a billion became the first American ever an A. C. G or T. or higher. convicted in a case involving How one common testing procedure works: The random-matc- h DNA evidence. He was senprobability also says nothing about the other tenced to 22 y ears in prison for Isolation ufDSA Probing Hadtoih live oi i nloied issues in the case. Although laboral)A is rcco'ered from battery and aggravated rape, small amounts oj blood, piohes aie added to t.'ie tory error or planting of evidence burglary. sheet. skm hair or tissue. nylon also could explain a match, those The case against Andrews Chromosome The "fingerprint" and sorting in for Cutting, sizing accounted aren't was possibilities simple and typical of most Resli it turn cnznics air used Had, pi ohe h hind to number. that that involve DNA evidence. mall limit lJA sequent es at in i in tltr l)A at specitit Jurors rarely understand that, diiieii nt plat es on die inhm Police sent two samples to a plat es. 7 he l)A pu es an' sheet, t n ating a "'iiigc said Jonathan Koehler. a professor placed in a gel. then sui ted New York laboratory for testlike a har punt" that looks according to size. of behavioral science at the Unisemen left at the crime ing t ode. Transfer to nylon versity of Texas at Austin. scene by the rapist and blood ideflC His research shows that jurors, l)A piei e adhere to taken from Andrews. a mlon slu et plat ed in the dazzied by figures perhaps isolated The laboratory millions or billions, focus on the DNA from each sample, then random-matc- h probability and compared the two and found often ignore laboratory error as a they matched. AP possible explanation for the correthe lab couldn't match Source: AP research lation between the defendant's entire genetic code Andrews' DNA testing. "DNA is the best tool for idenDNA and that from the crime that would be the to rapist's later. was Davis Four months scene. tifying the innocent and the guilty But impossible. technically DNA his didn't because free, New When the Orange County. that we have." said former could technicians repcompare And Ritter Calif, sheriff's department sent 50 York prosecutor Levy, whose match that of the rapist. resentative pieces of the two blood samples to three laboratories book. "And the Blood Cried Out." was convicted and sentenced to 40 DNA samples that scientists in in of the series a prison. method examines years in the early days of DNA testing, know are highly variable in the It's not uncommon for eyewitcase studies. the accuracy rate w as about 98 perhuman population. accuse the to nesses Baltia wrong In person those one of cases, labs have cent. Presumably, It's not unusual for two ranDNA in a rape case. In fact. a man fingerimproved since then, but nobody more woman was raped by selected people to have that n itness show has domly w into eyew her house at night printing ho broke knows how much. Subsequent the same DNA pattern in one of are identifications her head over notoriously a and put pillowcase studies have found that laboratothose genetic locations, which ries falsely match samples once in so she couldn't see him. Carol unreliable. are known as variable-numbe- r I:ewitness the as her identified Sanders helped testimony rapist a few hundred to a thousand times. 2X tandem repeals. But it is rare 24 of the y people friend, a man who had been convict "We are concerned that this Instifor unrelated people to share in 19 National a insistdescribed and for her months, stalking effect, in combination with misthe whose same DNA in two such cases Justice of him well to tute she knew ed report enough forensic leading assurances from eviDNA areas. g overturned later him were without by een science experts that laboratory recogni.e And as the number of DNA dence. And other forensic metha good look at him. errors are impossible or nearly When police caught up with ods, such as hair analysis, were sampled increases, so regions conviclead to could impossible, in of he about the does he involved swore John other-wishowever, e Davis, rarity of a person's tions w here acquittals might hadn't committed the crime. He those wrongful convictions. pattern. result." Koehler and two colDNA fingerprinting is about to went so far as to suggest Finding a pair of people leagues wrote in the Winter 1995 even its more the same DNA pattern in even with an propopowerful, get acquaintance. Journal. investigate police issue of Jurimetrics the minimum four places Yet despite the complaints of Gregory Rilter. Rilter looked just nents say. Most states now have DNA the knew and databanks DNA proof like him. number said, Dais containing has been regions thai critics, in 0 y ears, no one is ictim because he had once dated files of people already conv ictcd of labs commonly analyze shown to have been falsely consexual or related offenses. When victed by DNA evidence. That may her roommate. just about unheard of. except in Accustomed to such claims, police begin investigating a new cases of identical twins. When be because laboratory errors are Davis' crime, thev can test DN A collected ignored you get up to six DNA segrelatively rare and tend to be so investigators himself. They at the scene to see if it matches ments, a person's pattern is as easy to spot when they do happen attempts to clear that they need not be considered in arrested him and charged him with anybody in the databank with a unique as a fingerprint. the rape, taking a blood sample lor historv of a similar offense. most cases. S DNA helps solve cases t ex-bo- gel-tin- two-thir- Inauguration Day a whirl of sites, sounds and spectacle Inauguration Day for Bill and me ended early Tuesday morning after a whirlw ind tour of 15 inaugural balls. We arrived at the White House around 2 a.m. exhausted but exhilarated. We were also famished. We hadn't eaten since lunch and headed straight to the refrigerator in our private living quarters. As we ate leftovers from a family dinner Bill and I had missed earlier that night, we chatted and recalled our fav orite moments of the day. It all began w ith a prayer service at the historical Metropolitan AME Church in Washington. I couldn't have thought of a better way to start Inauguration Day and the'day honoring Martin Luther s for King J'r. As Bill four another years in office, he knows that he won't be able do his job alone. He needs his faith and him. people of faith to support The morning service, which brought together representatives frnm Christianity. Judaism and Islam. boosted the congregation's spirits and reaffirmed my belief that much more unites us than divides us. Friends from throughout Bill's life spoke and sang at the serv ice. pa-pare- Bill Hy bels. pastor of Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago, spoke of the visits he and my husband have shared every inonth for the past four years, praying and talking together, strengthening their faith and nuiary &-- t Clinton U 23 Talking it Over building a friendship. Jesse Jackson and Tony Campolo. an ev angelist minister from Philadelphia, delivered sermons challenging us all to remember our obligations to the poor. And Jennifer Holiday closed the service w ith a rousing rendition of "Amazing Grace" that lifted the roof and our hearts. After the service. Bill and I returned to the White House, where we greeted congressional leaders w ho had come to escort Bill to the Capitol. As we drove to the Capitol. I looked out the w and saw people already staking out seats along the parade route. I also saw a few protesters, who reminded me of the greatness of our democracy and our right to disagree with each other openly and peacefully. It w as cold and overcast as Chelsea and I took our seats w ith Tipper Gore and her children at the g ceremony. I held Bill's Bible open to a passage he had w Inch Isaiah 5N: 12 selected he later used in his speech when he said we should all be "repairers of the breach." When he related his name after Justice Rehnquist. "1. William Jefferson Clinton." tears welled up in my eyes, and I thought I was going to cry. I felt proud and awed as I watched my iuisband walk toward the podium on the West Front of the Capitol, looking out toward the mall and the Washington monument. I had been worried about Bill's voice for three days. It had turned hoarse on Friday, and I had pleaded w ith linn to stay in for the weekend. (I am known in my family as an incurable worrier.) But Monday, his voice was stiong oath-takin- and clear. As Bill began his speech, the sun emerged from the clouds and bathed him in light. Chelsea and I were aniaed by the weather's good timing. Alter the ceremony, we went to Statuary Hall, one of the most historic rooms in the Capitol, for lunch with members of Congress. The menu was composed of dishes Thomas Jefferson serv ed 2K) years ago while he was in the White House. I sat between my husband and House Sieaker New t Gingrich (who. ironically, was seated to my left). Chelsea sat next to Strom Thurmond, who at 94 is still one of the Senate's greatest channels. When Senator Warner presented the president with the traditional gift of an already framed picture of the morning's ceremony. I did not remember the same event occurring lour years ago. Looking back. I reali.e I was loo anxious and overwhelmed to take in the details of my husband's first inauI guration. This time. was much more relaxed and savored every moment I was thrilled at the number of people who had come out on such a cold day to watch the inaugural parade. Bill. Chelsea and I walked the last few blocks to the White House. We saw familiar faces in the crowds and waved to them. Bill even caught sight of a man he had worked w ith on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while he was a student at Georgetown University 30 years ago. The parade itself had every thing from mariachi bands to polka dancers to gymnasts. I was especially pleased to see groups that I had personally inv ited. including Florida A&M's pried marching band and the Yelm. Wash.. Llementary School Choir. The hardest part of the day was finding the energy to change into our formal wear for the evening "s balls. I was afraid to nap between the parade and the balls for fear of not being able to get up. But before we knew it. Bill and I were in the motorcade, dropping in on one ball after the other and dancing to "Unforgettable." The energy of the people hav ing a good time kept me going, even as my feet protested w ith every step. And when Bill and I returned to the White House, we realized we had carried all of the day's good feelings home w ith us. |
