cover image Justice and Science: Trials and Triumphs of DNA Evidence

Justice and Science: Trials and Triumphs of DNA Evidence

George Clarke. Rutgers University Press, $24.95 (216pp) ISBN 978-0-8135-4192-1

From his work as part of the prosecution in the 1995 O.J. Simpson murder trial to his star billing on TV's America's Most Wanted, former San Diego prosecutor Clarke has been party to some of the justice system's most visible, controversial and melodramatic moments. He puts that populist knack to work in this nonfiction page turner that should appeal just as much to true crime buffs as those concerned with the workings of the criminal justice system. Now a leading world expert on the use of DNA in establishing probable guilt or innocence, Clarke describes himself as an unlikely pioneer; after avoiding science in college, one of his early assignments as a legal researcher was to defend the admissibility of DNA typing in a rape case. Helpfully, his sketchy science background allowed him, once he had mastered the material, to make a presentation that's easily understandable by judges and juries, as well as readers. Full of suspenseful true-crime accounts tracing the capture and conviction of murders and rapists, as well as the successful exoneration of the wrongly convicted, this title has real best-seller potential.