Gianna DiMinno
Baton, Rouge. "DNA Helps Solve 20-year-old Rape Case." - KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana News Weather & Sports. 12 KSLA News, 20 Jan. 2016. Web. 01 Feb. 2016 <http://www.ksla.com/story/31016498/dna-helps-solve-20-year-old-rape-case>
I read the article “DNA helps solve 20-year-old Rape Case.” by Baton Rouge Police. It was an article about two males that raped and choked a women in 1995. They were along S. Choctaw Dr and Baton Rouge Police said that a woman was walking down the street when a car with two men inside repeatedly passed by her and offered her a ride home. After saying “No” repeatedly, she finally accepted. The men had told her, “You don’t get any ride for free. Then she felt some sharp object across her neck.” According to the Baton Rouge Police. The suspects took her to a gravel road off of Mockingbird Lane where they raped, choked, and left the woman dead on the side of the road. The two men had never been caught because twenty years ago, there had been no technology like DNA testing, so the case went cold. But in 2004, when DNA testing became available, Baton Rouge police went back and re-tested old cases such as this one where the evidence had been well preserved. After they tested State police Lt. J.B. Slaton said, “It came up with two male profiles for DNA.” But at the time, CODIS was not allowing there to be multiple hits of DNA to be entered into the system until 2013 when the CODIS changed its software. This meant that the case had gone cold once more until November 2015. The BRPD got some new information that would change the case. The police had asked the crime lab to look at the evidence again, and a match came back for Leighton Hills and Allen Causey. But instead of going out to arrest these two men, the police had already found out that these men were already behind bars. Allen Causey, one of the rapists of the woman in 1995, had been in Ascension Parish Prison. He is currently charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated from the 1995 case. Leighton Hills is locked up at Elayn Hunt Prison and serving time for three counts of attempted second degree murder and now he is currently charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated rape. Even though it took twenty years to find the rapists and kidnappers, but the case had finally came to a close thanks to the new DNA software that has been developed in the years.
The article had talked about how twenty years later DNA has made a change within a case. In the case, in 1955, CODIS had not been made, which made many cases go cold due to the lack of DNA evidence and technology. But as seen by BRPD, they took a cold case and solved it, even though the men were already in prison, but they were still able to keep those men behind bars for a very long time. There are many cold cases today, that are still unsolved, because it is due to the lack of evidence, or lack of technology that could be used to solve the case which is honestly really upsetting because a rapist could be walking the streets right now living a free life, while his or her victim is living every single day in fear of their rapist.
This article had many strengths but had a lot of weaknesses that I saw. One weakness in the article that I noticed was that it lacked a lot of information. It never talked about the reason why the two men were locked up prior to their rapist charge. They only described one of the arrest that was made prior to the new charge to one of the men but that was it. Another mistake that I noticed in the article was that they never fully explained if the victim was alive or dead because at the beginning they said the victim was left of the side of the road and left her “for dead”, but later on they said that this would give the victim peace at mind knowing her rapists were behind jail. So we can assume she is alive, but I wish the author had gotten into more detail than given. One strength I saw was that the author kept your attention throughout the entire article. They talked little about the case, but when they did, it was interesting and grabbed my attention. Another strength they did was point out the mistakes that the BRPD had made during this case which is the reason why it became a cold case and how technology had changed the end result of this case. I enjoyed reading this article because it had a happy ending, but I never fully understood how many cases go unsolved due to the lack of evidence or technology which is very upsetting because a lot of victims are probably living their lives in fear while their offenders are walking the streets as a free person.
9 comments:
This article, called “DNA Helps Solve 20-year-old Rape Case” provides an overview on the ways that technology (specifically related to DNA) has evolved over time and the ways that it has improved. One thing I liked was Gianna’s summary of the article/case. She listed the people involved and had a detailed report as to what happened. The addition of dialogue was nice because it added more depth into the story. I liked how she included the dates of the technology which showed progression over time. One area that stood out to me, was Gianna’s critique of the article. She listed both pros and cons and things that she thought could be improved, such as making the story more clear as there were several parts where the wording was confusing.
I think one way to improve the article would be to include quotes from multiple officers who were working on the case, rather than just having one person summarizing the case. I feel as if the article could add a little more background regarding the case (it had precise details) but only talked about the major points. It should include how the officers tried to solve the case without the CODIS technology and what things they were able to figure out with DNA tech.
Overall Gianna’s critique and the article were well done. Without reading this article, I would have never even heard about this case. I thought it was interesting to see how big of an effect forensic technology can have on the outcome of a case.
Emme Kerj
Current event 13 comment
Gianna, I thought you did a great job explaining the story behind the article. You also summarized all of the events in chronological order which made it really easy for the reader to follow along your summary. I also thought that you did a good job explaining what the article was lacking since I definitely agreed with a lot of the points that you made about it.
I thought that you could have done somewhat of a better job explaining why it is so important that we constantly strive to improve technology for the sake of everyone’s safety. I also think that you made a pretty big mistake writing that the rape victim twenty years ago died from her injuries since that was not true. I also think that your summary was way too long considering this article was extremely short so some of the points you made were somewhat unnecessary.
One thing that surprised me was that it took so long to create the technology needed for DNA profiling and even the CODIS database. It definitely surprised me a lot that CODIS wasn’t able to get multiple DNA profile hits until 2013 and that is very worrisome. It made me wonder if there are possibly other cases that haven’t been completely or rightfully solved yet because of the missing pieces in technology in the past. I also think that this article definitely shows how important it is to revisit some cases that weren’t completely solved in the past.
Works cited:
Chawla, Kiran. "DNA Helps Solve 20-year-old Rape Case." - KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana News Weather & Sports. N.p., 20 Jan. 2016. Web. 08 Feb. 2016. .
http://www.ksla.com/story/31016498/dna-helps-solve-20-year-old-rape-case
Gianna, after reading your current event I was able to get a deeper understanding of what the article was saying and the evidence that was given within the article. I thought that you did a great job covering all the important details about the unsolved case and the steps that were taken over time to solve it. I also thought that you did a good job explaining why the case went cold and how the two men are now behind bars. One way I think you could have bettered your review was the information on the victim. I got a little confused after you had written that she was "left for dead." Even though the article said that, it would have been smart to clarify that she was still alive in the beginning so that we knew what these men had done and what they could be charged with and whether she would get some relief from the case finally being solved after 20 years. I also think you could have improved your article if you talked about how improving technology over the years has benefited not just this case but many by helping put the people behind bars. I would have liked to see a little more explanation on how the CODIS has improved over the years. Overall, I think you did a great job summarizing the article. I found it very interesting how this police department, even after 20 years, wanted to get justice for the victim and solve her case.
Works cited:
Chawla, Kiran. "DNA Helps Solve 20-year-old Rape Case." - KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana News Weather & Sports. N.p., 20 Jan. 2016. Web. 08 Feb. 2016. .
http://www.ksla.com/story/31016498/dna-helps-solve-20-year-old-rape-case
Gianna’s review on the article “DNA helps solve 20-year-old Rape Case,” written by the Baton Rouge Police, opened readers’ eyes to the fact that certain forensic technology, including DNA profiles, have not always been available, although it may appear to be so because of the huge improvements that have been made to this technology in such a short amount of time. Gianna did an exceptional job of giving a thorough description of the background of the rape case that the article reported. This information gave readers context as to why the case was, repeatedly, a cold case. She emphasized that the lack of technology for DNA profiling led to the lack of physical and crucial proof to convict the victim’s rapists. Gianna also wrote a thorough critique paragraph, which pointed out the pros and the cons of the article in detail.
However, another quote, possibly a longer one in order for readers to see a direct quote about the technological issue or one about the cold case that was eventually, would have made the article review stronger. Also, as a reader, I noticed that there were minor grammar and sentence structure problems that inhibited my comprehension of certain sentences. Otherwise, the review was thorough and well constructed.
I was most surprised by the fact that there was DNA testing in 2004, but, at the time of the case, there was a lack of the proper technology to compare the evidence (with DNA) with multiple DNA profiles until 2013. It never occurred to me that CODIS was advanced and updated to fit the needs of this case until 2015, which was only (barely) a year ago. It was amazing to discover that a cold case (twice over) was finally closed when the technology to solve it was sophisticated enough.
Chawla, Kiran. "DNA Helps Solve 20-year-old Rape Case." - KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana News Weather & Sports. N.p., 20 Jan. 2016. Web. 08 Feb. 2016. .
http://www.ksla.com/story/31016498/dna-helps-solve-20-year-old-rape-case
I thought that Gianna's review was interesting in the way that it reflected the point of the article without being too long or too short, it was written like a review instead of just being a paraphrased version of the article. I thought that the review's emphasis on the importance of the technology was good, as it showed why the information is relevant. I also thought that it was good that the review included a decent amount of specific information from the article, as it helped to emphasize the importance of the technology. Although this review was pretty good, I thought that a few improvements could have helped. I noticed that there were a few inaccuracies in the review. I also found that the summary was a little longer than it should have been, although this is not really a big issue. I was surprised by how far technology has come, I was also surprised by the fact that the police are still investigating a 20 year old case.
I think that Gianna's review was extremely interesting because it summarized the article very will with a skillful blend of facts, and opionionated content. This article demonstrated how important DNA is in forensic science because it can be used to solve many cases. I thought that Gianna could perhaps include more detail and some information from outside sources to create a more complete current event.
Gianna,
I really enjoyed your review of the article “DNA Helps Solve 20-year-old Rape Case.” There were a few things that stood out. One, I liked your summary of the article. It was concise enough to understand the article without being too long and boring. Two, I thought you did a great job including background information on this case. This information provided insight to what was happening. Three, I liked how you focused on the technology aspect of the case which proves the relevance of why the article was written.
Although your review was great, there are a few things you could do to make it even better. One, I wish you included another quote or two from an expert in the field, or someone who worked on the case. This would have made the review even more thorough and could have gone more into depth on the subject. Two, there were a few grammar mistakes that could have been easily fixed with a quick check over.
After reading your review, I was very surprised that it took so long for CODIS to get multiple DNA hits. I wonder why it took so long for CODIS to make the technology for DNA profiling. It makes you think what other cases in the past years could have been solved or solved quicker with this updated technology.
I think Gianna explained very well the significance of new DNA technology and how the technology can now help answer old unsolved cases. Also she described the rape case that was being solved after 20 years very well because it wasn't confusing to understand. Lastly she presented very well how new technology helped solve the 20 year old rape case.
Overall I think Gianna’s review was very well done. Some suggestions I would make is to explain more about how CODIS helped solve the case and what other new technology helped solve the case. Also I would add quotes from the article to the review because there wasn’t any quotes in the review.
I was impressed that by using new DNA technology like the CODIS investigators can help solve cold cases going back to 20 years.
This article talks about how the technology of DNA testing helps solve a 20 year old rape case. The reason the men that raped this woman didn’t get caught was because twenty years ago, they didn’t have technology such as DNA testing, so therefore, the case went cold. However now with advanced technology in the 21st century, when DNA testing became available, Baton Rouge Police went back and retested old cases such as this one.
This was a very interesting article, however could be improved with further details on the advanced technology on DNA, and also include any information on whether there were any alternative ways to solving rape cases prior to the advancement in technology.
One thing that stood out to me, was how there are many cases that remain unsolved due to lack of technology.
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