DNA evidence at crime scenes might be able to be faked

Just having this discovered, even if it is never used, is going to cause lots of trouble in court cases.

Scientists in Israel say it's easy to "engineer a crime scene" with fabricated DNA evidence, throwing in doubt the strength of the prime standard in criminal cases that has been used to secure thousands of convictions.

The Tel Aviv-based scientists fabricated blood and saliva samples containing DNA from another subject. . . . . They were able to make the match by accessing a DNA profile in a database without even using any actual tissue or blood from the person they were mimicking,

"You can just engineer a crime scene," said Dan Frumkin, lead author of the study. "Any biology undergraduate could perform this."

It may also be possible to scavenge DNA from a stray hair or discarded cigarette butt and turn it into a saliva sample, a development that has worried the American Civil Liberties Union. . . .

The study, which was published in the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics, can be found online.