William Shields

Preliminary Hearing

November 3, 2003

Summary:

William Shields, a professor at State University in Syracuse, New York, took the stand as the Defense DNA expert.

• Shields testified that the technique used by the FBI laboratory is faulty and fails to adequately address contamination. Under questioning from prosecutor Dave Harris, Shields acknowledged he had never personally extracted a mitochondrial DNA sample in a lab, and garnered his expertise from reading reports done by others, viewing work in other labs and some of his own lab work. 

• In the afternoon session, Shields testified that the human hair found in Scott's boat could have come from one in any 11 white people. He reached that conclusion by using a computation different from that of an FBI mitochondrial DNA expert who testified at the preliminary hearing last week. "I guarantee you," Shields said, "the way it is presented (by authorities) is biased against the defendant - and it's wrong."

• Prosecutor Dave Harris sparred with Shields by squabbling over definitions. Shields grew increasingly agitated with Harris in a string of exchanges about scientific terms and procedures, finally saying: “You’ve been doing this all along. Stop misrepresenting what I’m saying.”