Dayton v. State

Andrew Dayton (plaintiff) was charged by the State of Alaska (defendant) with first-degree sexual assault and first-degree burglary for breaking into a woman’s home and sexually assaulting her. Dayton was tried, but the first trial ended in a hung jury. At a second trial, Dayton was convicted and appealed the conviction. In Dayton’s first trial, an expert, Hayne Hamilton, testified about DNA evidence from a vaginal swab taken from the victim. Hamilton compared Dayton’s DNA to the swab from the victim and advised that the projected random frequency of a match between the swabs would be 1 in 3,500 for North Slope Iñupiat Eskimos and 1 in 2,000 for Bethel/Wade Hampton Yup’ik Eskimos. Hamilton could not testify to a frequency match for Athabascan Indians because Hamilton had no such database, which mattered primarily because Dayton was an Athabascan Indian. Dayton argued that at the first trial, DNA-match evidence was meaningless without an Athabascan database. Between the first and second trials, the crime laboratory began using the more advanced short-tandem-repeat (STR) DNA-analysis system. This STR DNA-analysis system did have an Athabascan database developed by the state crime laboratory, and, at the second trial, an expert was permitted to testify that a match between the DNA obtained from the victim and a random Athabascan was a 1-in-2.5-million chance. Dayton argued that the evidence was improper and asked for a hearing to determine if the evidence met the Daubert standard. The judge overruled that objection, and Dayton appealed his conviction on that basis. On appeal, the appellate court remanded the case for additional findings on whether the evidence was the type of data experts in that field reasonably rely on. On remand, Dr. Bruce Budowle testified that the evidence was a type relied on by experts and gave evidence as an expert in the creation of DNA databases without objection from Dayton. Budowle indicated that the STR points examined in the Athabascan database were part of an international system and used nationally and internationally as evidence. Dr. Budowle also indicated that he coauthored an article published in Forensic Science International that described the Athabascan database.