MOSQUITOS AND EVIDENCE (COMMENT). Nick commented here on my post of a couple days ago about a dead mosquito which was found in a stolen car that “I’d have to think a defense attorney would have a field day with that one.” Yes. The persuasive power of the letters “DNA” can cause people to forget the elements of proof needed in a criminal case. Where circumstantial evidence is involved, a defense lawyer will raise other explanations, and the prosecution will have to address those. I posted here about the alternative explanation for a perfect alibi that paramedics who had brought the accused to a hospital had brought his DNA to a crime scene two hours later and about the alternative explanation for the Phantom of Heilbrun that the DNA at crime scenes came from a worker at the factory that made swabs.
In the case about the stolen car, the man gave the alternative explanation that he was a hitchhiker rather than a car thief.