In criminal sentencing today, it is prevalent and necessary for evidence to be gathered in order to hopefully find and incarcerate the people who committed the crimes. Serology is an important factor that allows this to happen. Serology is the study and identification of bodily fluids such as blood, sage, and semen for the purpose of proceeding in criminal investigations and legal processes. Blood, saliva and semen can easily be found in cases of sexual assault and murder. In the case of Dennis Maher, serology is something that should have been taken into account in making a conviction. Instead, none of the evidence gathered was tested to exclude him, and he was thrown into prison based on eyewitness identifications. The crimes that occurred in 1983 ended with Dennis Maher, a United States soldier, charged and convicted of rape, assault with intent to rape, assault and battery, and aggravated rape in the year 1984 based on eyewitness testimony (NEIP, 2011) . Three rapes were reported in 1983 in the state of Massachusetts. The first rape was reported on August 17, 1983, by a woman named Marilyn Goss. She was raped by an intruder while spending the night at the Casa Manor Motel in Ayer, Massachusetts (Stearns, 2006). On November 16, 1983, a woman was attacked while walking home in the town of Lowell, MA. A man she did not know approached her, attempted to converse with her, and then forced her into a nearby yard, where the man sexually assaulted her (Know the Cases: Dennis Maher). On November 17, 1983, approximately twenty-four hours after another attack in Lowell, Massachusetts, another woman was violently pushed to the ground by a man who had pulled out a knife. The woman fortunately managed to escape the man after a struggle... middle of paper... pink sperm cap and red core, and a picroindigocarmine dye, which turns the middle part of the sperm blue and the tail of the sperm green. The stained samples would then be placed under the microscope and hopefully sperm would be present so the DNA test could be carried out. As previously stated, in the Maher case sperm were found in the Lowell rape victim's underwear, and sperm were also found in the rape kit on the vaginal swab slide developed at the time of the crime. In both sperm were found, collected and DNA testing was completed on the sample to determine if Dennis Maher committed the crime. Works Cited http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Dennis_Maher.php http://www.newenglandinnocence.org /2011/dennis-maher/http://pacer.mad.uscourts.gov/dc/cgi-bin /recentops.pl?filename=stearns/pdf/maher56f.pdf