Timmy McGrath
Bronxville School
Current Event #16
February 11, 2018
This article DNA Helps New York Police Solve Infamous 1994 Rape Case is about how recently developed technology was able to help the New York police solve a 24 year old rape case. In New York city 1994 a women was raped at 5:30pm in prospect park. Then A High profile News columnist started questioning the woman’s account calling it a hoax. However this January when the technology became available the police were able to test the seman that they found at the scene. It came back and matched James Edward Webb a 67 year old serial rapist serving a life prison sentence in Sing Sing. This recent discovery was made possible by a new piece of forensic technology which was able to detect the DNA and figure out who commited the crime.
This article talked about a rapist and how the women who made the claims wasn’t immediately believed and she was almost shrugged of by the public. This is something that is now becoming more and more of a problem now. With women speaking out about their experiences with sexual abuse in their lives it is changing a lot of people's mind on how these women should be treated. They are now getting the respect and belief in their stories that they should have had many years ago. And now this new technology will continue to help women prove that the person who did this to them is guilty.
I thought that the author did a great job writing this article. There were not very many mistakes in anything. The only critique that I would have against the article is that I felt there could have been some more background information on the case. The author just dived into the details almost like he was assuming that everyone knew what the case was.
4 comments:
Lily Monahan
Current Event 16
February 13th, 2017
Forensics
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/nyregion/prospect-park-rape-solved-dna.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FForensic%20Science&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=collection
I think Timmy did a great job reviewing this very relevant and interesting article. He reported out what he learned in a very straightforward way and included only relevant information. He included as much forensic information as he could, which a lot of people reviewing articles have trouble doing.
Timmy could have incorporated more quotes into his review, which would have furthered my understanding of what he was talking about. He also could have made his review a bit longer.
Overall Timmy did a great job and It showed me how old cases can be solved with new technology.
Alexander Rizzo
Bronxville School
Current Event #16
February 11, 2018
Timmy McGrath’s Current Event Critique
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/nyregion/prospect-park-rape-solved-dna.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FForensic%20Science&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=collection
The first point well presented in Timmy’s current is the way in which he first summarized the article, “DNA Helps New York Police Solve Infamous 1994 Rape Case”, effectively by avoiding to many details but portraying the entire story without leaving anything out. The is important because sometimes when writers summarize they often tell the entire story over again which is unnecessary. Another aspect of the review that was well written was Timmy’s transition from the summary of the article to why the article is important. Without saying why the article is important to forensic science, the review means nothing in the context of the class. Finally, Timmy did a good job putting his own opinion about the article in the end of his review; making sure his opinion did not affect how he wrote the beginning of the article.
One point that would make the review better was by saying why he liked the article with more description. At the end of his review, he said the article was a “good read” but did not fully elaborate why. Another critique of Timmy’s article is the grammatical errors in the review. For example Timmy wrote, “Finding like this in any case are extremely important…”
One thing that I learned from this review is how important and life changing a DNA sample can be in terms of money and wealth. I did not realize that DNA could not only solve crimes but also be financially beneficial to people.
Baker, Al, and Alan Feuer. “DNA Helps New York Police Solve Infamous 1994 Rape Case.” The
New York Times , 9 Jan. 2018,
www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/nyregion/prospect-park-rape-solved-dna.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FForensic%20Science&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=collection.
Timmy wrote an excellent review to the article “DNA Helps New York Police Solve Infamous 1994 Rape Case” by Al Baker and Alan Feuer. He begins with a succinct summary that provides the reader with all of the necessary information concerning the rape, the public response, and the recent discovery that solved the case. I really like Timmy’s comments on how this rape victim was doubted in 1994, but that women are now coming out with their stories of sexual abuse and receiving the respect and belief that they should have been for a long time. I also agree with him that the authors could have included more background information on the original case and investigation.
While Timmy wrote a thorough and well-written current event report, there are two areas which he could improve upon. I think that he could have included a quote from the victim, the investigators, or someone close to the case. This would have given his current event response a new and interesting perspective. Timmy also forgot to include a citation which is a small mistake that he could easily fix.
After reading Timmy’s current event response, I have learned about an almost 25 year old rape case that has finally been solved thanks to DNA. I think that it is very important for people to still try to solve cases, even if they have been closed for years. The article and the report also brought up a very interesting point about the treatment of alleged sexual abuse victims and how that has progressed in the last 25 years.
Damian Kaminski
Bronxville School
Current Event #16
February 11, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/nyregion/prospect-park-rape-solved-dna.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FForensic%20Science&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=collection
The first point well presented in Timmy’s current is the way in which he first summarized the article, “DNA Helps New York Police Solve Infamous 1994 Rape Case”, effectively by avoiding to many details but portraying the entire story without leaving anything out. The is important because sometimes when writers summarize they often tell the entire story over again which is unnecessary. Another aspect of the review that was well written was Timmy’s transition from the summary of the article to why the article is important. Without saying why the article is important to forensic science, the review means nothing in the context of the class. Finally, Timmy did a good job putting his own opinion about the article in the end of his review; making sure his opinion did not affect how he wrote the beginning of the article.
One point that would make the review better was by saying why he liked the article with more description. At the end of his review, he said the article was a “good read” but did not fully elaborate why. Another critique of Timmy’s article is the grammatical errors in the review. For example, Timmy wrote, “Finding like this, in any case, are extremely important…”
One thing that I learned from this review is how important and life-changing a DNA sample can be in terms of money and wealth. I did not realize that DNA could not only solve crimes but also be financially beneficial to people.
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