Wayne Williams (Atlanta Child Killer) Free Essay Example, 1500 words

Wayne was arrested and charged with two counts of first degree murder. One notable thing after Wayne’s arrest was that the killings came to an end (BACM Research, 2008). The intelligence officers were convinced that Wayne had killed up to twenty-eight young males. Nevertheless, the prosecution paid attention to the last two murder victims discovered in the Chattahoochee River with an aim of getting a guilty verdict. In most instances, microscopic evidence is usually relied on in the reinforcement of other forms of evidence during the criminal investigation. However, the Atlanta child killer case was a unique one since microscopic evidence was the only form of physical evidence that was available. Therefore, all other forms of evidence were applied to support the microscopic evidence. The exclusive adoption of the microscopic evidence turned out to be reliable in Wayne’s case because there were sufficient fibers and hairs to convince the jury beyond doubts. Forensic exp erts identified 28 different pieces of microscopic evidence from the victims. The identified evidence matched items associated with Wayne Williams. In addition, 19 of the identified fibers were identified on more than one victim. We will write a custom essay sample on Wayne Williams (Atlanta Child Killer) or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now The other notable thing was that one of the fibers (light green cotton fiber) was common while the other fibers were unique. Since microscopic evidence was extremely crucial in Wayne’s case, a lot of information had to be collected by the forensic investigators regarding each of the identified fibers (Nickell, 2011). Applying Statistical Probability The use of statistical probability made the Atlanta child killer case a unique one. This was aimed at proving the significance of the fiber evidence. Through statistical probability, the forensic investigators determined that the yellow and green carpet fibers identified on several victims had been produced and sold to a number of carpet manufacturers in 1970-1971. Over that one-year period, about 16,397 square meters of carpet made of the yellow and green fiber was purchased in the southern United States. Further estimations suggested that only 82 average sized houses in the state of Georgia were likely to have such carpeting material. Statistics revealed that there were 638,995 houses in the region of Atlanta, which implied that the probability of a house having a carpet with yellow and green fiber was 0.01%, or 1 in 7,792 (Nickell & Fischer, 1999). Therefore, the carpet in Wayne’s house was quite uncommon, hence finding such fiber material on a victim meant a lot since the probability was high that the victim had been in contact with Wayne’s carpeting material.