Man Convicted of Rape Despite Having Twin With Same DNA

[LiberalHeart]

BOSTON (AP) -- A rape suspect who twice won mistrials because key DNA evidence could have come from either him or his twin brother was convicted Wednesday in his third trial. Darrin Fernandez, 31, was convicted in an April 2001 attack on a Boston woman who said she was repeatedly raped by a man who climbed up a fire escape and broke into her second-floor bedroom while she slept.
Jurors in the previous trials deadlocked, saying afterward that they were unable to agree on whether Fernandez was guilty because DNA from semen found on the woman's pillowcase could have come from either him or his identical twin.

More:
http://wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=4668285

[wakeme2008]

1. You know one of them is guilty but which one

:shrug:

[Warpy]

2. The one without the alibi, apparently

Seriously, you all knew this one had to come up eventually, right?

[sakabatou]

3. A feel sorry for the guy if he's the innocent one

[madmom]

4. I know a girl who has a baby by a guy with an identical twin,when

she filed for child support they both showed up and each said he could be the father, trying to get it tossed, so the judge ordered both to pay.The sibling soon backed off.

[LiberalHeart]

7. Happened in a local case, too ....

Several college guys said they had sex with a woman (prior to DNA testing) so the judge ordered them all to pay child support. This was in the '60s, happened at my college.

[rocktivity]

13. LOL! I doubt that each of them claimed to be the father

so they must have had an ulterior motive--getting the judge so confused that none of them would have to pay!

:rofl:
rocknation

[MadMaddie]

5. Unfortunately for him....his criminal history shows a pattern of

similar crimes.....

Are identical twins fingerprints identical? I would think there would be some type of anomoly in the fingerprints!!

[benburch]

8. No, fingerprints are not governed by genetics.

They would be different.

[MadMaddie]

9. Thanks for the clarification!!

No mention of fingerprints in the article at all.

[Mithras61]

6. It appears from the article as if his only defense was...

"You can't convict me on DNA evidence because I have an identical twin." The prosecution convicted him based on patterns of behavior including prior attempted rapes, home break-ins and sexual assaults as well as the DNA evidence. Not having seen all of the evidence, I think that it's likely that the DNA evidence was pretty solid in that it identified two possible perps and this one has a history of similar attacks, so the conviction looks good to me. It's good for the prosecution that the other previous victims were willing to testify in this case. As has been noted many times, sexual offenders have a very high liklihood that there is more than one victim, and have a high recidivism rate. Perhaps they can keep him in jail for a long time now that he's been convicted multiple times.

[elehhhhna]

10. DA: "They all look alike to me!"

[rocktivity]

11. Did the twin brothers have proveable alibis or not?

During the third trial, prosecutors urged jurors to consider a "pattern of behavior" they said would distinguish Fernandez from his brother. Prosecutors introduced evidence they said showed Fernandez committed a series of home break-ins, sexual assaults and attempted sexual assaults with characteristics similar to the rape in 2001.

Oh, so that was their strategy! I'm glad it worked, but isn't bringing in a defendant's past criminal history prejudicial? This conviction may already have an appeal put in.

:headbang:
rocknation

[dsc]

12. Not always

behavior which shows a pattern allows previous convictions to come in.