English geneticist Alec Jeffreys gained international celebrity in the early 1980s when he developed DNA fingerprinting/ profiling while working at the University of Leicester.
Ironically, soon after his breakthrough, in 1986, a young woman was raped and killed only a few miles from his lab. A man confessed, but DNA testing showed his innocence. Later the same test proved the guilt of another suspect.
Since that time, DNA fingerprinting has been used as conclusive proof by both prosecution and defense in many a court case. Its use has been especially valuable in freeing wrongly convicted prisoners from death row.
Jeffreys was honored with knighthood in 1994.
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