In order to understand what is happening with DNA in the courtroom, it is necessary to examine the context and environment in which science and the law meet. The DNA war is a clash of the different approaches and interests of law and science. It would be difficult to think of two disciplines that have more disparate approaches to seeking the truth. Scientific truth evolves by the building of consensus through peer review and replicating experiments. For the law, truth is less absolute and more relative to the case at hand.
Legal truth is achieved through adversarial argument and judgement.
The DNA war is a dramatic, hard fought conflict between these two worlds. In this short book we have tried to provide a brief overview of DNA issues in advance of the Simpson trial. Let us emphasize at the start that we strongly believe that DNA testing properly performed belongs in the courtroom. We share this view with the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, the National Academy of Sciences and the vast majority of scientists in America. The continuing controversy over the admissibility of DNA evidence makes little sense except to the very few people who benefit from continued confusion.