Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Douglas Beamish

A while back I posted about Colin Pitchfork, whose claim to fame was that he was the first person ever convicted of murder with DNA evidence. Now I give you Doug Beamish. What is his claim to fame? Answer after the jump.

Beamish is a Canadian who was the first person ever convicted of murder (specifically second degree murder) using animal DNA. In this case DNA from two white hairs, which were fur from Beamish's parents' pet cat "Snowball" were used as evidence to secure the conviction. Beamish received a fifteen year sentence.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

there is no such thing as a 15 year sentence in Canada for 2nd degree murder. Try life sentence. The only thing determinate about a life sentence is eligibility for parole

T. T. Douglas said...

Thank you for the comment. That was worded awkwardly and I stand corrected. If that is the case I assume then that he has the possibility to be out soon since this happened in 1994 and he should be up for parole in the near future.

Anonymous said...

I saw this story on Exhibit A last night. He was sentenced to life, with no possibility of parole for 18 years.

Anonymous said...

Nice. This article of yours helped me with my homework mate. thanks

T. T. Douglas said...

No worries. Glad it helped. Kind regards.