Perpetrators Law and Legal Definition
A perpetrator is a person who has criminally injured victims.
In order to identify the defendant as the perpetrator, each link in the evidentiary chain must be completed. In order to complete the final link - identification of the defendant as the perpetrator - it is not enough to show that the genetic profile is rare in a certain number of ethnic populations. Instead, it must be shown either that the genetic profile is rare in the perpetrator's ethnic group or in the general population, as these are the perpetrator's populations. Without that final link, while frequency evidence may be relevant for some purpose, it is not probative, standing alone, of the defendant's identity as the perpetrator. [People v. Prince, 134 Cal. App. 4th 786 (Cal. Ct. App. 2005)].
