The question as to whether or not Bergwall was rightfully or wrongfully convicted is important, but the even better question is now that they have begun to overturn his convictions: are they releasing a guilty murderer? “This is the justice scandal of the century,” Bergwall, 62, told The Associated Press by telephone from a psychiatric hospital. His mental state may also play a role in either his lying about the crimes, or his current beliefs that he is innocent.

Five of his murder convictions have already been overturned. In the remaining cases there may not even be a trial, because with his previous convictions prosecutors dropped the charges instead of going to court. They claimed they had a lack of evidence.

Now you might be asking yourself why might someone lie about murdering and raping so many people? There is no right answer out there. Bergwall claims, however, that he developed an “identity crisis” when he found out he was gay and he started using drugs at the young age of fourteen. He claims he only wanted attention, he was lonely, and hoped to be medicated if he sounded crazy enough. Bergwall stuck by his confessions until 2001 when he stopped taking benzodiazepines, and entered a period of silence in which he didn’t speak to anyone for several years. In 2008 he declared his convictions were lies and began fighting for retrials.

Why did the court believe his “false claims” if they truly were lies? Apparently he gave information about the victims and the sites where either they had gone missing or been recovered that only the murderer would know. On the other hand, there was a discussion about the fact that there was a lack of technical evidence to support his convictions.

Sweden’s chancellor of justice, who is now a Supreme Court judge, said he still believes the convictions were correct. According to the article on the Forensic Magazine website Lambertz said “I’m not saying he is guilty, but the evidence was such that it was without doubt correct to convict him.” He added that “there were a number of circumstances” indicating that Bergwall had been present” at the murder scenes.

At the end of the day there will be questions left unanswered. Why would you lie about so many murders and provide gruesome details about the crimes? Why change your mind now so many years later? Did the Swedish court make the right choice the first time? It is a mistake over turning these convictions? What do you think?

I will leave you with a quote from Bergwall from the Forensic Magazine website that at least leaves me somewhat concerned and suspicious as to whether or not these “lies” he confessed are really false. “There’s a lot left to explain,” Bergwall said. “And I will do that when the time is right.”

However, there are some concerns about this plan as well, what about the balance between public safety and a citizen’s rights? Is collecting every single criminals DNA intrusive? There would be samples from people who commit disorderly conduct to DUI and even public intoxication. For these minor offenses is it too intrusive to take their DNA? There is no guarantee that someone who is publically intoxicated one time will commit another serious crime in the future. Although, one can argue if you commit the crime it is only fair to put your DNA on file for future use, public safety is crucial isn’t it?

The other concern is if the DNA is collected from every misdemeanor offender and every other violent offender there will result in a massive amount of DNA swabs needing to be processed. This leads some people to wonder if there is going to be that many samples of DNA being processed the chance for cross contamination could increase. This could lead to false accusations and imprisonments down the road.

If Pabone gets this bill to pass in Colorado, the state would only be the second in the country to have an all-crime DNA database. New York is the other state that instituted this policy several months ago in August of 2012. This bill won’t cost the state a penny either, because offenders will be footing the bill for the DNA test.

What do you think? Would this be an invasion of citizen’s rights? Could this be beneficial to catching criminals in the future? Should all states institute this policy? What are the drawbacks to this proposition? Should offenders have to foot the bill for the DNA test? Please comment and let us know what you think below!

Juan Rivera at the Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet, Ill.

DNA evidence and analysis has helped to exonerate many who confessed to violent crimes; however, in some cases, the prosecution has begun suggesting alternative theories as to where DNA (not matching the person convicted) came from. This New York Times article covers the issue in detail, and can offer some insight into both sides of the argument. It focuses on the case of Juan Rivera, who was convicted in 1992 for raping and murdering Holly Staker, an 11 year old girl. Although Rivera confessed after intensive interrogation, DNA found on the victim did not match Rivera’s. He now claims he was simply broken down by the questioning.

What do you think about this issue? Is it right to dismiss DNA evidence that does not match the person convicted as a coincidence or accidental exposure, or is this alternative resulting in keeping innocent people in jail?

Let us know what you think in the comments below!

Amanda Knox is surrounded by family members shortly after her arrival at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Oct. 4, 2011, in Seattle.

Recently the media has been ablaze again with the Amanda Knox trial as both she and Sollecito filed appeals contesting the original verdicts. After a court ordered review of the DNA evidence in the case, serious doubts were cast over the main evidence that linked Knox and Sollecito to the crime.

Many think that Knox and Sollecito deserved to be free as they were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned initially, while others feel that this is yet another failure on the part of justice systems or poor evidence collection. What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.

Harry Rilling and Bruce Morris are among those watching Gov. Dannel Malloy sign the new DNA sampling bill into law in Hartford.

What do you think? The law has been depicted by many as similar to “Katie’s Law,” a New Mexico law named for Katie Seppich who was raped and killed. Katie fought her assailant; however, the blood and skin found under her finger nails did not match any samples at the time. It was not until three years later that New Mexico’s database matched her killer’s DNA. On the other side of the spectrum, some feel that the law will result in an invasion of privacy, primarily the Fourth Amendment, Article 1, Section 7 which protects against unreasonable search and seizure.

Let us know how you feel about the new law and what implications you think it has for future investigations in the state.

The Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science

The new HCL Institute blog is here to provide another source of news and information from the institute! We will be posting everything from statistics and their significance to current hot topics in forensics to interviews with UNH faculty members! We hope to foster discussion in the comments on each post and on our social networks (our Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/HenryLeeInstitute)! Later this week we will be posting our first topic, so keep an eye out for it!