Project Innocence

Dean Cage was convicted of a sexual assault on a 15-year-old girl in 1994. Because he was African-American, about six feet tall, had a beard, and was around 25-30 years old he was convicted of the crime because he fit the 15-year-old girl’s description of her attacker. After serving 2 years in a Cook County jail cell, on October 21, 1996 he was charged with 40 years in prison. In 2005, the Innocence Project accepted his case and found him to be innocent through testing the attacker’s cells on the victim’s clothes and comparing them to Cage’s cells. He was then released on May 27, 2008 after serving almost 14 years in jail and prison.

 DNA testing has dramatically changed and progressed over the past century. In the 1900’s, DNA testing consisted of matching blood types. It then quickly changed to methods with higher powers of exclusion with HLA and serological tests. In the1970s, there were rapid developments in DNA technologies. In the 1980s, scientists began to see DNA attributes as an opening to studying biological relationships. These tests eventually led scientists to DNA fingerprinting which can identify your family, identify a body and even solve crimes.

  One thing I am taking away from this story is the importance of modern day science and justice system. Before this project, I never realized how many people are accused of crimes they did not do and how long they have to serve for someone else’s actions. My appreciation for this justice system has grown immensely by its ability to cut down bias opinions and free those who are living their life in a cell because of something they never did.

Citations:

"Developing DNA Testing - The Path of DNA Technology over Time." DNA Junction - Your Resource for DNA Testing Information. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. http://www.dnajunction.com/history/new-dna-technology.php.

"DNA Testing: Paternity Tests, Forensics, and Identification." WebMD - Better Information. Better Health. Web. 05 Dec. 2011.  http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/dna-fingerprinting.

Lucy the Chimpanzee

This story of Lucy follows a young chimp that was raised from a baby by a psychotherapist and a social worker who she viewed as her parents. This story shows the amazing capabilities chimpanzees have to adapt to a lifestyle they were never supposed to live. Eventually Lucy’s parents could no longer care for her and had to release her into the wild with a woman named Janis Carter to watch over her. Here Lucy could not adapt and couldn’t even function as a chimp. Janis moved her and several other chimps like Lucy to an island to allow them to cope and adapt more easily. There all the chimps could adapt and fend for themselves. In the end Lucy was killed by what they think to be poachers because of her friendliness towards humans.

Lucy was adopted by her two parents just weeks after she was born. At just one year of age, she could hold her own bottle and feed herself. By the age of 2 and 3, she could sit at the table, use silver wear, get dressed herself, make her own tea, read magazines, comfort those who were sad and even lie. At age 5, they began to teach Lucy sign language so she could communicate with others. She even started to make up new words for objects she didn’t know the name of. By age 10, she was no longer a chimp. Lucy was attracted to humans, acted like humans, and was even treated like a human. At age 10, her parents could no longer care for her and released her in the wild in Africa under the watchful eye of Janis Carter. Here Lucy could not survive. She got skin infections, lost her hair and was starving because she did not know how to get her own food. She simply didn’t know how to be a chimp. After a month or so of this, Janis moved her and several other chimps that were raised like Lucy to an abandoned island. Here the chimps still struggled to adapt and were only interested in Janis’s food and materials. In reaction to this, Janis built a cage for her to live in so she could watch over the chimps, but they could not come in contact with her. Soon enough all the chimps lost interest in Janis and began to fend for themselves. Although it took Lucy longer to adapt, even she began to lose interest and started living like a chimp. With this accomplishment, Janis then left. When Janis returned to the island several years later to check on Lucy, all she found were Lucy’s bones lying where Janis used to stay. Although they are unsure as to what happened, they believe she was most likely poached. Now Janis lives and works in Gambia to protect chimps and their fate.

One thing that I learned from Lucy is to have a greater appreciation for other species. As humans, we tend to look at ourselves as the only intelligent or important species out there. However, this is not true.  Chimps are our closest living ancestor and are usually underestimated of their intelligence and capability. We as humans need to accept this and take in to consideration how we treat them and what we do to them.

To hear the full broadcast, please click on the link below:

http://www.radiolab.org/popup_player/

I am sophomore at Animas High School and this is my first year taking Biology. This blog will be showing most of the work we are doing in class and will have my responses and opinions on different writings we read. Enjoy!