The President’s DNA Initiative has released Principles of Forensic DNA for Officers of the Court, a CD-ROM that address­es the use of DNA in judi­cial pro­ceed­ings. This resource is designed for pros­e­cu­tors, defense attor­neys, and judges, and pro­vides a sim­ple overview of DNA tech­nolo­gies and the issues that arise when DNA evi­dence is pre­sent­ed in court. The top­ics are cov­ered in short para­graphs accom­pa­nied by illus­tra­tions, and links to oth­er resources are includ­ed. Some of the areas cov­ered by the CD-ROM include the biol­o­gy of DNA, DNA lab­o­ra­to­ries and qual­i­ty assur­ance in test­ing and under­stand­ing lab reports, foren­sic data­bas­es, vic­tim issues, pre­sen­ta­tion of DNA evi­dence at tri­al, and post­con­vic­tion DNA cas­es. This resource was pro­duced by the National Institute of Justice as part of President Bush’s ini­ta­tive to ensure that the sci­ence of foren­sic DNA reach­es its full poten­tial in solv­ing crimes, pro­tect­ing the inno­cent, and iden­ti­fy­ing miss­ing per­sons. Copies of the CD-ROM are avail­able through the National Criminal Justice Reference Service at https://​www​.ncjrs​.gov/ or by call­ing 1 – 800-851‑3420 (those call­ing should ask for NCJ 212399). An online ver­sion of this resource is avail­able at http://​www​.dna​.gov/​t​r​a​i​n​i​n​g​/otc/. See Resources and Innocence.

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