 |
The links contained in this section are provided for user convenience. The American Prosecutor's Research Institute (APRI) does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness or completeness of the information contained on a linked Web site. APRI cannot authorize the use of copyrighted materials contained in linked Web sites. Users must request such authorization from the sponsor of the linked Web site. |
|
DAYTON DAILY NEWS
GOVERNOR URGES DNA TESTING ON 30 INMATES CLAIMING INNOCENCE
Gov. Ted Strickland is urging judges and prosecutors to allow DNA testing on 30 inmates seeking to prove their innocence, The Columbus Dispatch reported Thursday.
A lab north of Cincinnati agreed to conduct the tests for free as a public service, the newspaper said in the last of a five-part series on flaws in the state's DNA testing program. The investigation found that police and courts routinely discard evidence after trials, and prosecutors and judges often dismiss inmate applications for DNA testing without a stated reason.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/gen/ap/OH_DNA_Testing_Flaws.html
|
|
DNA innocence testing for convicts on back burner
WASHINGTON — Since 2006, the Justice Department has yet to spend any of the $8 million set aside by Congress for DNA tests for convicts to prove their innocence while it has used $214 million to collect DNA from convicted criminals and improve crime labs, records show.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-10-10-DNA_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
|
|
Exoneration Using DNA Brings Change in Legal System
By SOLOMON MOORE
State lawmakers across the country are adopting broad changes to criminal justice procedures as a response to the exoneration of more than 200 convicts through the use of DNA evidence.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/01/us/01exonerate.html?_r=2&ref=us&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
|
|
MD court rules prosecutors must try harder to locate post-conviction DNA evidence
Detailed evidence search is called for
In DNA-linked appeal, judges rule exhaustive effort must be made before declaring it lost
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-md.ci.evidence02aug02,0,2696501.story
State must look harder for evidence, Maryland Court of Appeals says
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4183/is_20070802/ai_n19440438
Full text of MD court’s ruling filed August 2007
http://mdcourts.gov/opinions/coa/2007/82a06.pdf
|
|
Colorado Governor creates evidence preservation task force for DNA samples.
After reports on the stew of national standards, the governor wants to look at the handling of DNA specimens.
By Miles Moffeit
Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Launched: 08/04/2007 12:20:51 AM MDT
Gov. Bill Ritter has launched a task force to explore how criminal evidence is collected and preserved in Colorado and whether practices used elsewhere in the country should be embraced here.
http://www.denverpost.com/technology/ci_6541777
|
|
Ga. court upholds DNA testing of incarcerated felons
By GREG BLUESTEIN
Destroyed evidence hurts investigations, loved ones
By Miles Moffeit
Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Launched: 09/24/2007 01:00:00 AM MDT
Judith Rosenfeld is the widow of Morton Rosenfeld, who was murdered in Estes Park in 1979. The Larimer County Sheriff lost all the evidence in the case. Here she is featured in her Winter Park, Florida home, where she is a Professor of Poetry and Creative Writing at the University of Central Florida. (Hilda M. Perez)
The key suspect in the Estes Park murder of a filmmaker lives comfortably in California, virtually immune from prosecution because a sheriff's deputy pitched all the evidence in the 28-year-old case.
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_6979962
|
|
Tracing the unknown dead: Database links DNA to bodies
By Doyle Murphy
Times Herald-Record
September 23, 2007
Middletown — Three years ago, city police hiked into the woods east of Dolson Avenue where a man sat alone on a make-shift recliner.
He was wearing blue jeans when they found him, blue jeans with a gray button-down shirt over a white shirt. Nearby were a pair of size 9 black sneakers and a fleece jacket with "Rockland County Grandparents Association" printed on it.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070923/NEWS/709230343
|
|
Ga. court upholds DNA testing of incarcerated felons
By GREG BLUESTEIN
Georgia's top court on Monday upheld a state law that requires DNA samples be taken from incarcerated felons, saying in a unanimous ruling that lawmakers had a right to require the samples be collected from the inmates.
"Because convicted felons are more likely to violate the law than ordinary citizens, our Legislature has a legitimate interest in creating for law enforcement purposes a permanent identification record of convicted felons," Justice Carol Hunstein wrote in the 8-page ruling.
http://www.macon.com/220/v-print/story/144524.html
Case available for viewing at: 2007 Ga. LEXIS 580 (September 24, 2007)
|
|
Group seeks DNA testing for Texan executed in 2000
10:59 PM CDT on Monday, September 10, 2007
The Associated Press
HOUSTON – A state district judge Monday ordered officials in an East Texas county to preserve a 1-inch-long piece of hair that was key evidence almost two decades ago in a capital murder case.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/
texassouthwest/stories/091107dntexexecution.302258c.html
|
|
Legal help scarce in HPD Crime Lab cases
Years after the DNA debacle at the Houston crime lab prompted scrutiny of hundreds of criminal cases, nearly two-thirds of defendants convicted with faulty evidence have received little help in determining how, or if, their convictions could be affected, the Houston Chronicle has found.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5119806.html
|
|
Europe to rule on whether police can keep DNA of innocent people
By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor
Published: 08 September 2007
Police could lose the power to keep DNA samples taken from suspects who have been cleared of any wrongdoing, in a landmark case which is to be decided by the highest court in Europe.
A ruling against the British Government could lead to the destruction of tens of thousands of DNA and fingerprint materials as well as deal a severe blow to any plans to create a universal genetic database.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article2941849.ece
|
|
"Embarrassing" FBI DNA Analysis Backlog Is Large, Growing
The FBI has fallen behind in processing DNA from nearly 200,000 convicted criminals, reports USA Today. The backlog means most of the biological samples the bureau collects have not been stored in the national DNA database and used to solve crimes. DNA from 34,000 convicts has been added to the database since 2001, resulting in 600 matches to unsolved crimes. At the same rate, the unloaded samples could help solve an additional 3,200 crimes.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-09-03-dnabacklog_N.htm
|
|
Crimes Continue As Many DNA Samples Go Unanalyzed
Under Maryland law, Raymont Hopewell should have had his DNA taken after he was sentenced for selling $20 worth of cocaine in 2004. The Maryland state police, lacking technicians, never got around to it, reports USA Today. No one knew that his DNA matched two unsolved rape/murders on the national DNA database. He committed three more murders, one rape, and four assaults before being caught in 2005. Then, a DNA test was performed. Hopewell, now 36, pleaded guilty to all five murders, including three that a DNA match could have prevented.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-09-03-dna-tests_N.htm
|
|
DOJ Must Revive Law Enforcement Mission After Gonzales
Demoralized, discredited, and dysfunctional are words being used to describe the state of the Justice Department under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who will step down Sept. 17, reports Legal Times. The department needs critical attention to revive its core mission: law enforcement. "There is no reasonable doubt that Alberto R. Gonzales will be remembered as one of the worst attorneys general in history and perhaps the most embarrassed, and embarrassing, Cabinet officers ever," says Daniel Metcalfe, a 30-year veteran of Justice who has become an outspoken critic since retiring in January as head of the department's Office of Information and Privacy.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1188550958062
|
|
NYC On Track For Least Murderous Year On Record
New York City is on track for its least murderous year on record, reports the New York Daily News. The city experienced a 15 percent dip in murders in the first eight months of 2007 compared with the same period in 2006 - with murders plummeting from 366 to 311 as of Aug. 26. "It's an outbreak of better behavior," said criminologist Andrew Karmen of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. At the current rate, the city would reach a year-end total of 476 murders; the count has not dipped below 500 since before 1963 when the city began tracking murders by the number of bodies rather than the number of arrests.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/2007/09/04/2007-09-04_2007_may_see_fewest_city_murders_on_reco.html
|
|
Powerful FL Sheriff Jenne To Quit, Admit Corruption
Broward County, FL, Sheriff Ken Jenne, once the county's most powerful politician, will resign and plead guilty to federal corruption charges involving tens of thousands of dollars he allegedly received from sheriff's office contractors and employees, reports the Miami Herald. After months of personal anguish, Jenne decided to cut the plea deal on tax evasion and other charges to limit his prison time because he also was staring at an imminent grand jury indictment on more serious fraud and money- laundering offenses.
http://www.miamiherald.com/466/story/224985.html
|
|
Timoney Refuses To Quit Despite Union Discontent
With a "no confidence" vote looming today by Miami's Fraternal Order of Police on Chief John Timoney, the Miami Herald explores "an escalation of tensions between his administration and the Fraternal Order of Police." Timoney blames the controversy over his free use of a vehicle over a "conspiracy hatched'' at a recent union conference. ''I'm not going anywhere soon. My commitment is to [Mayor] Manny Diaz, and he's got at least two years and four months'' left in his term, Timoney said.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/222453.html
|
|
Meth Prices Rising Amid U.S.-Mexico Border Enforcement Push
The price of some illegal drugs has soared as law enforcement on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border target traffickers and Mexican drug cartels fight each other for control of the trade, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune. The Office of National Drug Control Policy said in July it had tracked a large spike in cocaine prices: up at least 67 percent in 12 U.S. cities, including Los Angeles and New York City, over the past six months. Other law enforcement officials say methamphetamine prices have gone up recently in areas such as Los Angeles and San Diego. Some law enforcement officials say the high prices could be an indication that there are serious disruptions in the drug pipeline through Mexico.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20070904-9999-1n4prices.html
|
|
Many Drug-Related Ransom Kidnappings Believed Unreported
When two men snatched a 7-year-old boy at gunpoint from a drug-plagued Philadelphia neighborhood this summer, they hoped to get $250,000 in ransom, reports the Associated Press. The plan unraveled when the captors saw the youngster's father with police. They let the boy go unharmed two hours later. The quarter-million-dollar ransom may seem high, but police say drug gangs can demand huge sums after kidnapping a rival or a dealer's girlfriend or child. "When you bring these drug dealers in, they say there clearly is that kind of money out there," Lt. John Walker said. "There's a lot of cash out there on the street."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-09-04-1318178790_x.htm
|
|
Is Gangsta Rap Behind Colorado Springs Murder Rise?
A spate of shootings and a rising murder rate have Colorado Springs CO police saying Gangsta rap is contributing to the violence, luring gang members and criminal activity to nightclubs, reports the New York Times. "We don't want to broad-brush hip-hop music altogether," said Lt. Skip Arms, a police spokesman, "but we're looking at a subcomponent that typically glorifies, promotes criminal behavior and demeans women." Police actions have angered the hip-hop community, mostly blacks and Latinos, many of whom live in the city because of ties to its Army and Air Force bases.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/03/us/03hiphop.html?_r=2&oref=slogin+&oref=slogin
|
|
How Minneapolis Newspaper Missed Case of Larry Craig
Did the Minneapolis Star Tribune suppress news of the airport arrest of U.S. Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport nearly three months ago after an airport police officer working undercover in a bathroom said he observed Craig signaling he wanted to engage in "lewd conduct"?
http://www.startribune.com/161/story/1395490.html
|
|
DNA retention policies unclear, unwritten
By Chuck Plunkett
Denver Post Staff Writer
Sixteen years after DNA testing emerged as a major crime-fighting tool, most police department evidence rooms lack written policies that dictate how long DNA samples should be kept for cases involving the most violent crimes, a review of evidence-room manuals suggests.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_6450589
|
|
Evidence Blundered - OFF THE HOOK | After a North Carolina woman was stabbed to death, blood evidence pointed to her husband, but miscommunication between prosecutors and the crime lab doomed the case.
By Susan Greene
Denver Post Staff Writer
Hickory, N.C. - Ray Hensley drives by Francisco LaBoy's house at least once a week.
"Every time we go to church. Every time we come home. Every time we go to Conover. Every time we go to the interstate," he said.
Whenever he passes, Hensley looks in the driveway for the white Nissan pickup police say bore his daughter's blood.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_6446578
|
|
Woman searches for rape kit, justice
By Miles Moffeit
Denver Post Staff Writer
In times of levity, Susan Cash calls it her "search for the holy rape kit."
But her three-year journey to find evidence from her 1985 rape has been arduous, at time torturous, she says.
It illuminates how the burden of pursuing evidence, and justice, in old cases often falls to victims who latch onto the promise of DNA after police abandoned investigations long ago.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_6450587
|
|
Statutes of frustration
LEGAL CLOCK RUNS OUT | Twenty-two years after they were raped in Dallas, Kim and Celeste learned that an inmate's DNA matched their assailant's. But statutes of limitations scuttled their case, and he walks free in Colorado.
By Miles Moffeit
Denver Post Staff Writer
William H. Johnson drifts from apartment to apartment in the Denver area, unburdened by any public awareness that 24 years ago, Dallas police say, he slipped into a Dallas condominium, pulled pantyhose over his head and raped two women for six hours.
His last known address, from which he was recently evicted: 290 W. Grand Ave., apartment 108 B-W, in Englewood.
"Ladies in that town: He could be living next door," warns Celeste, one of his Dallas victims.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_6446570
|
|
Mothers of victims face life without answers
By Susan Greene
Denver Post Staff Writer
Charlotte Altemeier, Janette Bodden and Faye Weaver have never met.
Each woman had a daughter murdered in New Orleans.
And each of their cold cases became virtually unsolvable when New Orleans Police threw the DNA evidence — three rape kits — into the trash.
"Their killers got away, and we let the evidence slip through our fingers," says John Ronquillo, a former New Orleans homicide detective who worked the cases.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_6450572
|
|
Justice Delayed
Overburdened crime labs are undermining law enforcement.
Friday, July 20, 2007; A18
WHEN IT comes to determining budget priorities for law enforcement, DNA scientists and drug analysis technology are no match for patrol cars and police on the beat. That helps explain why the resources available for crime labs have not kept pace with the demands of police departments and prosecutors. Long backlogs for analysis of DNA, fingerprints, fibers, drugs and other types of forensic evidence are the rule at publicly funded crime labs around the country. Imagine your doctor ordering a blood test and saying you'll have the results in six months to a year -- that's the sort of time frame that police and prosecutors in some places face routinely.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/19/AR2007071902311_pf.html
|
|
Is evidence law too tough?
No inmates have been freed by new petition process; supporters say system works
By FRANK GREEN, TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Virginia court rejected 1st appeal
Three years after felons were allowed to petition the Virginia Court of Appeals with non-DNA evidence of innocence, few have done so, and none has been found innocent.
Critics say that is because the law is impossibly tough; others disagree.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/cva/ric/news.PrintView.-content-articles-RTD-2007-07-16-0110.html
|
|
Animal Hair Case Update:
http://www.law.com/jsp/law/LawArticleFriendly.jsp?id=1182762362795
|
|
LAWS PROPOSED ON USE OF DNA TO HELP PROVE INNOCENCE
Alan Newton, a former bank teller from the Bronx, was freed from prison in 2006 after serving 22 years for a rape he did not commit. For more than a decade, Mr. Newton had asked the authorities to test his DNA against the physical evidence from the crime scene, only to be told that the evidence could not be found.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/04/nyregion/04wrongful.html?pagewanted=print
|
|
DNA COLLECTION FROM FELONS UPHELD BY STATE HIGH COURT
The state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the practice of taking DNA samples from convicted felons for the purposes of identification, saying it's no different from fingerprinting them.
The justices' 7-2 ruling upheld a Court of Appeals decision and existing state law that allows DNA typing of criminals to help in prosecution and identification.
The law prohibits the use of DNA samples for research or other purposes.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2003674052&zsection_id=2002111777&slug=dna20m&date=20070420
|
|
State Police may hunt for a suspect using kin's DNA
Critics say innocent targeted
By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff | April 17, 2007
The State Police crime laboratory is considering expanding the use of its DNA database to search for close relatives of suspects whose DNA is recovered from crime scenes, a controversial crime-fighting technique that prosecutors say would help them solve more cases but that critics say would target innocent people, many of them members of minority groups.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/04/17/state_police_may_hunt_for_a_suspect_using_kins_dna/
|
|
OP/ED: THE PROBLEM WITH EXPANDING DNA SEARCHES
By Jennifer Mnookin
If you're convicted of a felony (or in some states a misdemeanor), your DNA goes into a database. That information primarily helps in the pursuit of repeat offenders. But some people want to extend the reach of that data to find people who are only a partial match. It's a particularly personal form of a law enforcement fishing expedition.
The technique is called "familial searching," and it targets not only the convicted but their relatives as well.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-mnookin5apr05,1,3622220,print.story?coll=la-news-a_section
|
|
EXPERTS SAY DNA EVIDENCE ALONE MAY NOT BE ENOUGH FOR CONVICTIONS
Tim O'Neiland William C. Lhotka, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Tuesday, Feb. 13 2007
Police announce a DNA match in an old murder case. Bingo, says the public.
But how close is "bingo" to conviction?
Perhaps farther than people think, according to prosecutors and defense attorneys who say a DNA match alone may not deliver the goods.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/emaf.nsf/Popup?ReadForm&db=stlto
day%5Cnews%5Cstories.nsf&docid=21AA37F33060C8A186257281000D8BAC
|
|
DNA LEADS TO MD. MAN IN KILLING
Ex-soldier arrested in 1984 murder of woman in Germany
By Nicole Fuller, Sun reporter
Originally published March 9, 2007
More than 20 years after a young nursing apprentice at a U.S. Army base in Germany was raped and murdered, DNA evidence has led to the arrest of a suspect in Baltimore.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.dna09mar09,0,983010.story?coll=bal-local-headlines
|
|
DNA WOES PROMPT A NOVEL PROSECUTION
The alleged mishandling of DNA test results by a suspended administrator at the State Police crime laboratory has prompted one prosecutor to offer a novel interpretation of the Massachusetts statute of limitations, according to the Hampden County district attorney and a defense lawyer opposing him in a rape case.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/03/06/
dna_woes_prompt_a_novel_prosecution?mode=PF
|
|
THE DANGERS OF DNA TESTING
DNA testing is in the news a lot these days, and not solely because of the saga of Anna Nicole Smith, whose burial was delayed amid a legal tussle over the paternity of her 5-month-old daughter, Daniellyn. The growing success in obtaining convictions by genetic matching (since the O.J. Simpson trial anyway) has made it the preferred identification technology for law enforcement, as well as by other federal agencies. The U.S. military requires every serviceman to give blood for future DNA analysis, presumably for body identification.
http://www.businessweek.com/print/technology/
content/mar2007/tc20070305_747605.htm
|
|
INNOCENCE PROJECT TO REVIEW DALLAS COUNTY CONVICTIONS
The extraordinary number of DNA-based exonerations in Dallas County has led to a unique partnership between prosecutors and advocates for those who may be wrongly convicted.
District Attorney Craig Watkins has agreed to allow the Innocence Project of Texas to review whether DNA tests should be done in any of the cases of 354 people convicted of rapes, murders and other felonies as far back as 1970.
Most of those requests already have been denied by trial court judges on the recommendation of former District Attorney Bill Hill. Mr. Watkins, who succeeded Mr. Hill on Jan. 1, wants to ensure that those decisions were correct, his first assistant said.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/021607dnmetinnocence.179e9f3.html
|
|
U.S. SET TO BEGIN A VAST EXPANSION OF DNA SAMPLING
The Justice Department is completing rules to allow the collection of DNA from most people arrested or detained by federal authorities, a vast expansion of DNA gathering that will include hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, by far the largest group affected.
The new forensic DNA sampling was authorized by Congress in a little-noticed amendment to a January 2006 renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, which provides protections and assistance for victims of sexual crimes. The amendment permits DNA collecting from anyone under criminal arrest by federal authorities, and also from illegal immigrants detained by federal agents.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/05/washington/05dna.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print
|
|
LEGISLATION WOULD SHIFT DEATH PENALTY FUNDS TO COLD CASES
In a plot fit for Cold Case Files, state Rep. Paul Weissmann wants to abolish the death penalty and use the savings from prosecuting and defending death penalty cases to solve old cases, including 1,200 unsolved murders since 1970.
Weissmann, a Democrat from Louisville, said the state could save about $2 million a year that is spent prosecuting and defending death penalty cases. He said the money could be better spent catching criminals still walking the streets.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5329493,00.html
|
|
WITH DNA FROM EXHUMED BODY, MAN FINALLY WINS FREEDOM
Roy Brown, who spent 15 years in prison on a murder conviction and uncovered evidence while there that linked another man to the crime, was released from prison on Tuesday after DNA tests on the other man’s exhumed body matched saliva on a nightshirt at the crime scene.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/24/nyregion/24brown.html?ref=nyregion&pagewanted=print
|
|
BILL CALLING FOR DNA SAMPLING AFTER ARRESTS MOVES TO SENATE FLOOR
People arrested for felonies and other crimes with longer prison terms would have to submit DNA samples that police could use to solve unrelated crimes under a bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
http://www.goupstate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070124/NEWS/70124003/1051/NEWS01
|
|
DETAINEE DNA MAY BE PUT IN DATABASE
The federal government could add DNA from tens of thousands of immigration violators, captives in the war on terrorism and others accused but not convicted of federal offenses to the FBI's crime-fighting database under a plan being finalized by the Justice Department.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070119/1a_lede19.art.htm
|
|
A 12TH DALLAS CONVICT IS EXONERATED BY DNA
A 50-year-old Dallas man whose conviction of raping a boy in 1982 cost him nearly half his life in prison and on parole won a court ruling Wednesday declaring him innocent. He said he was not angry, “because the Lord has given me so much.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/us/18dna.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=us&pagewanted=print
|
|
CRIME LAB MISHANDLED DNA RESULTS
An administrator at the troubled State Police crime laboratory has been suspended for failing to tell prosecutors of DNA matches in a number of unsolved rape cases, which now cannot be pursued because the statute of limitations has expired, the head of the State Police said yesterday.
The administrator, whom officials would not name, also told police and prosecutors that tests in an unspecified number of cases linked DNA recovered at crime scenes to suspects, when in fact they had not, Colonel Mark F. Delaney, superintendent of the State Police, said in a statement.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/01/
13/crime_lab_mishandled_dna_results?mode=PF
|
|
Sneak Thieves and Cat Burglars BEWARE
DNA evidence puts law enforcement hot on the perpetrator's trail in high-volume serial crimes.
Officer.com
October 2006 Issue
Sneak thieves and cat burglars once covered their tracks by donning a pair of gloves, but no more. Their DNA can act as the smoking gun that leads to their capture, as one unsuspecting bank robber recently found out the hard way. Police in Medford, Oregon, followed a suspect's mucous trail to make an arrest one year after he robbed the city's Rogue Federal Credit Union. After a teller mentioned the perpetrator sounded like he suffered from a head cold, investigators collected a used tissue at the scene they believed the suspect had left behind. Forensic analysts later developed a DNA profile from the tissue that matched a record in the state's DNA database.
http://www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=18&id=33491
|
|
BUSTING BURGLARS WITH SPIT, VOMIT
The days when car thieves and cat burglars could cover their tracks just by donning a pair of gloves may be over. An experimental Justice Department program has police departments collecting DNA evidence in nonviolent crimes for the first time, so a single stray hair can lock up a casual sneak thief.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,71398-0.html
|
|
Court Allows Racial Profile For DNA
Ruled In Case Of Murder
July 6 - The California Supreme Court, ruling in a Solano County murder case, said today that prosecutors can use profile frequency statistics for different racial groups when presenting DNA evidence.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=state&id=4341856
The complete text of the Court's July 6, 2006 decision in People v Wilson may be found at: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/
|
|
Hopes and Fears in DNA Databases
As Genetic Profiling Leads to Convictions, Privacy Issues Arise
By ARTHUR DELANEY
ABC News
June 30, 2006 — The FBI found Norman Bruce Derr without even knowing it was looking for him. Using a swab from a 20-year-old rape case, the government developed a male DNA profile, entered it in a database, and found a match, a "cold hit," for Derr, who is already serving time for a previous rape conviction.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/story?id=2139524&page=1
|
|
VAST DNA BANK PITS POLICING VS. PRIVACY
Brimming with the genetic patterns of more than 3 million Americans, the nation's databank of DNA "fingerprints" is growing by more than 80,000 people every month, giving police an unprecedented crime-fighting tool but prompting warnings that the expansion threatens constitutional privacy protections.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/02/AR2006060201648_pf.html
|
|
Tactics To Get DNA Disputed
Md. Teen Indicted After Swabbing
By Avis Thomas-Lester
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 20, 2006; B01
The case of a 14-year-old Prince George's County boy, linked to a sexual assault after police stopped him on a street corner and swabbed him for DNA, could break legal ground on when and how police secure such evidence from juvenile offenders, legal experts said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/19/AR2006051901899_pf.html
|
|
DNA OF CRIMINALS' KIN CITED IN SOLVING CASES
Cops would solve more crimes if they expanded their use of the nation's DNA fingerprinting system to test close relatives of known criminals, according to a research report that raises novel and difficult civil liberties issues.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conten
t/article/2006/05/11/AR2006051100962_pf.html
|
|
Should DNA be collected from all criminals?
By Ron Scherer | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
ALBANY, N.Y. - In most cities and states, vandalism, shoplifting, and loitering are misdemeanors – possibly involving community service, not jail time. But those who commit such low-level crimes in New York State may soon be required to give DNA samples to authorities - just as convicted rapists or murderers do.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0519/p01s02-usju.htm
|
|
“CSI OF THE FOUR-LEGGED WORLD”: UC DAVIS LAB USES DOMESTIC ANIMAL DNA TO SOLVE CRIMES.
The Spectator, Hamilton College, By Laura Trubiano Feb. 03, 2006 http://spec.hamilton.edu/science.cfm?action=print&news=1227
A 2001 sexual assault case in Iowa had come to a standstill when the victim could not identify the suspect. She did, however, remember one important detail: her dog had urinated on the suspect's truck during the attack. The dog's DNA matched perfectly DNA found on the truck's tire, and once there was DNA connecting him to the crime scene, the suspect pled guilty.
|
