DNA: Freeing the Innocent

What if you were wrongly accused of something you didn’t do? Not anything small like stealing from a store, but something huge like raping and murdering someone. Would you give up thinking there would never be a chance to prove your innocence now that you are stuck in jail? Or would you do anything to prove your innocence? Sometimes proving your innocence is as simple as getting your DNA tested again and putting that before a court again.

A podcast originally aired on April 19, 2002 called “210: Perfect Evidence” talked about how DNA has been helping free wrongly convicted prisoners. One of the cases they talked about which they called “Hawks and Rabbits.” In this case a few teenagers were convicted for raping and murdering a girl in 1986. She was found near the railroad tracks with her head bashed in by a rock. No arrests were made for quite some time, this led to the community becoming restless and the police becoming pressured. Eventually the police made an arrest, 16-year-old Larry Ollins. The officers interrogated him but were unable to get a confession so they turned to his friend, Marcellius Bradford and his 14-year-old cousin, Calvin. The officers beat up Marcellius until he gave in and signed the confession. They lied to Calvin saying that he could go as soon as he signed a confession, instead they locked him up along with Larry. While locked up Larry heard the news on TV and they were telling people what had happened at the crime scene, which later they found out was completely bogus. The police officers brought in Omar Saunders and told him that he was to say that he was breaking into some railroad cars when he heard a scream and decided to investigate, he was to say that he saw four black guys and a white. When Omar refused they charged him with murder along with Larry and Calvin. At their trials they all were convicted and were sent off to jail. They wrote many appeals but none of them were ever accepted. In the 1990’s Larry was hopeful that DNA would help exonerate them. Omar told Larry that at his trial the prosecutor said that the blood type in the semen matched everybody but himself. Larry then told Omar that the prosecutor said that the blood type matched everybody but himself. Omar realized that this meant that the prosecutor gave conflicting testimony.  After getting all of them to sign a paper verifying their blood types they still had a hard time getting the judge to review their case. Omar eventually found a magazine profile about a lawyer named Kathleen Zellner. Zellner was known for helping free wrongly convicted prisoners usually by using DNA. She spent 800 hours off the clock and spent $50,000 of her own money to ensure that their case would get back into court. Along the way she had an independent lab test the men’s’ DNA which they found out did not match any of the DNA found at the crime scene. The men were exonerated 15 years after they had been wrongly convicted.

I am surprised at how out of hand this case got, the police were desperate to convict someone for the atrocious murder, and they didn’t care if the evidence matched up or not. They just wanted to solve the case and put it behind them. I am happy that they finally did get released but at the same time I am disappointed that they were convicted in the first place. DNA testing in my opinion is something that should be tested for every crime possible.

Eat to Starve Cancer

Eat to starve cancer it’s a simple as that. Just changing your diet could actually help stop, reduce, and prevent cancer from ever forming. Some of the foods are in our daily lives already; strawberries, pineapples, artichokes, even dark chocolate. All these foods have a single thing in common that helps prevent cancer. That thing is called antiangiogenesis.

     In the TED talk that we watched William Li explained the root cause of many diseases that inflict our body. From arthritis to obesity to cancer; they are all caused by too much angiogenesis. Angiogenesis is the process of building blood vessels. Most angiogenesis happens when are children and only happens in a few cases when we are adults. When cancer first forms it is microscopic and cannot grow any larger because it is not getting any type of blood supply. The danger is when the cancer mutates and sends out signals for the angiogenic process to begin there by recruiting its own blood supply allowing it to grow. A new cancer has been on the rise. Antiangiogenic therapy which is in a way better than chemo therapy because it selectively targets the weaker blood vessels of the tumor. By destroying the weaker blood vessels of cancer we can effectively starve cancer of its required nutrients. After William Li explained the idea of using angiogenesis to treat cancer he went further and explained that it might be possible to prevent cancer from ever forming blood vessels. Our diets account for 30-35% of the environmental factors that cause cancer. Usually this means that food are taken out of our daily diets to prevent cancer but William Li took a different idea. He wondered what could actually be added into our diets. Antiangiogenic components are naturally found in a variety of food at different levels of potency. To think just eating everyday foods can help prevent cancer.

     This was really interesting to learn. I really enjoy the idea of being able to just eat foods that will help prevent cancer, I already enjoy quite a few of the foods on the list. In my opinion it would be a great idea to spread this information around the world as fast as possible. It may not be an absolute way to prevent cancer but it is taking a step closer. Not only we need to cure cancer we also need to find a way to prevent cancer and with each scientific advancement we are getting a step closer.