Posted
6/02/2005 05:13:00 PM
by Douglas
Pretty interesting defense for an accused rapist: My
brother did it. The odds of two people having the same DNA can stretch upward of 1 in 6 billion — unless they are identical twins.
Prosecutors are facing a rare challenge this week as they try to put a man behind bars in the abduction and rape of a 9-year-old girl.
A trace of DNA evidence from the 2001 sexual assault points equally to two men — Aldo Rene Penaflor and Hugo Adrian Penaflor, 22-year-old identical twins.
Aldo Penaflor went on trial Wednesday on charges that could land him in prison for life, but his defense strategy may be to blame the attack on his brother.
"The DNA is inconclusive. It could have been Aldo, or it could have been Hugo. You will have reasonable doubt," defense attorney Gilbert Villarreal told jurors Wednesday at the start of Aldo Penaflor's trial.
Ah, the old "you can't convict me, because my identical twin brother casts reasonable doubt as to which one of us actually raped the nine year old girl" defense. If I've seen it once, I've seen it a thousand times. . .
Turns out the other twin actually
testified, so it looks like this may not be as complicated as they thought.
This is a
Law and Order episode "ripped from the headlines" if I've ever seen one.