Defense, Prosecution Play to New 'CSI' Savvy

"While undoubtedly there's this 'CSI' effect, there might also be more awareness because of the many recent DNA exonerations and the problems with eyewitness testimony," she said. "Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when DNA came on the scene, you really needed a hearty sample, like a quarter-size. Now we're talking nanograms. . . . You can swab a drinking glass and get saliva cells, and so these days, it's inexcusable if those things aren't tested."

But it's not realistic to expect that every item at every crime scene will be collected for testing, said Paul Ferrara, the director of Virginia's state forensic labs. Of course, if an officer brings in a large bag filled with beer cans, cigarette butts, fast-food wrappers and other trash, everything will be analyzed, he said.

"If we don't analyze every piece of evidence, then we're asked, 'Hey, why didn't you check this?' " he said, adding that in 1989, the state labs processed 37 cases. This year, the estimate is closer to 3,700. "Your average citizen sees that kind of stuff on 'CSI' and says, 'I know you can do that. I see it on TV.' But on television, they take a long shot case and in an apparent matter of hours, a good result is available."

Ferrara said many of his employees have testified in cases in which no forensic evidence is introduced. They are called to the witness stand solely to explain the process to juries and the reasons definitive results are not always available.

Most Thursdays at 9 p.m., Virginia Adams is in front of her television, drawn to the latest exploits of the beautiful and sharply dressed crime-lab technicians who star on "CSI."

Adams, 60, follows as the characters investigate violent crimes and identify suspects through the analysis of blood spatter, fingerprints and microscopic hairs and fibers collected from crime scenes.

So when Adams was selected last month to sit on a jury in one of Pollard's cases in Alexandria, she listened intently as the prosecutor outlined the crux of the burglary case: Five fingerprints that lab tests concluded belonged to the defendant were left inside the apartment he was accused of ransacking.

Case closed.

"If it hadn't been for those clear prints, I would've wondered whether the police had done their job," Adams said, adding that she counts herself among the estimated 27 million viewers who tune in every week to the original "CSI," set in Las Vegas. Other shows, including "Forensic Files," "Law and Order" and two "CSI" spinoffs, set in New York and Miami, also deal with forensics.

Adams and the 11 other jurors found Jerry Brown, 41, guilty of grand larceny and burglary and recommended to the judge that he be sentenced to almost five years in prison.

In many ways, Adams represents the modern juror, someone who is aware of the significance of forensic evidence and holds a strong belief in the power of science to solve whodunits. Forensic evidence usually includes DNA, fingerprints, cast imprints of tire marks or shoes, the matching of bullets to a gun and any other samples that can tie someone to a crime scene.

"Those who watch 'CSI' believe they know more, and in some cases, they do know more. That's the bad side to this 'CSI' effect," said Joshua Marquis, a prosecutor in Oregon who serves on the board of the National District Attorneys Association. "There's this highly unrealistic expectation that, one, DNA will exist at all the crime scenes, and two, that it will make a difference."