VENTURA : Killer Denied Retrial in Case Tied to DNA
A Ventura woman convicted of murder in the first California case to permit DNA evidence will not get a new trial, even though a state appeals court has questioned the validity of the so-called “genetic fingerprinting.”
Ventura County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch ruled that he is not bound by the Alameda County decision that is critical of the DNA testing, but rather by an earlier Ventura County appeals court ruling that upheld the conviction of Lynda Axell for the February, 1988, murder of George White, who was stabbed to death at the Top Hat hamburger stand in Ventura.
Axell was convicted based on the DNA analysis of several strands of hair found in White’s hand after the murder, which presumably came from his attacker. A Maryland laboratory concluded that the hair and Axell’s blood were an exact genetic match, with only a one in 6 billion chance that someone else could have the same DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid.
Scientists say no two people, except identical twins, have matching DNA, the genetic material found in every human cell. Because only a portion of the DNA is compared in genetic fingerprinting, the test includes factoring the mathematical probability that two people could match the evidence sample.
Axell’s attorney, Sharon M. Jones, argued Friday that the August, 1992, Alameda County ruling that questions how the mathematical probability is determined shows there is a dispute in the scientific community over the issue. That makes the evidence inadmissible, Jones argued.
Storch said he knew when Axell was tried in 1989 that the scientific community did not unanimously embrace DNA testing. However, the procedures were and are generally accepted by the scientific community, and that is the standard for the evidence to be admissible in court, Storch ruled.
A three-judge appellate panel in Ventura upheld the Axell conviction and the use of the DNA evidence in 1991.
Axell, 38, is serving a life sentence. She was not in court for Friday’s hearing.
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