State v. Brown

LARSON, Justice.

Gary Dean Brown was convicted of first-degree murder, Iowa Code §§ 707.1 and 707.2 (1989), and second-degree theft, Iowa Code §§ 714.1(1) and 714.2(2). The convictions were based in part on scientific evidence of DNA “fingerprinting” which linked Brown to seminal fluid found in the body of the victim. Brown contends that the reliability of this procedure was not sufficiently established and that evidence of the mathematical probability of Brown’s being the source of the specimen was improperly admitted. He also challenges the introduction of a statement made by him during…