The Supreme Court ruled last week that police can swab arrestees for a DNA sample as a booking procedure. This means, you don’t have to be guilty of a crime in order for your genetic material to be taken and owned by the government. The (somewhat) good news is that not all states follow the same protocol when it comes to collecting DNA. [Read more…]
DNA Evidence That Proves Innocence Is Not Always Available for Defendants
Imagine a man was wrongfully convicted of a serious crime. Imagine there was evidence that could prove his innocence. One would think, in the system where due process is given so much lip-service, that the wrongfully convicted man would have clear and easy access to this evidence. But in the case of DNA, one would likely be wrong. [Read more…]
Supreme Court to Take Up DNA Collection At Arrest
Can the police collect your DNA and store it in a national database without any due process? In twenty-five states they can, if you are even a suspect in a felony case.
They even don’t need to wait until you are officially arrested, or until you are found guilty, and they don’t need a warrant to do it. This, many say, isn’t only an “unreasonable search,” but does away with the presumption of innocence—a cornerstone of our criminal justice system. For this, and other reasons, the United States Supreme Court is expected to decide the issue in coming months. [Read more…]
Some Prosecutors Unmoved By DNA Evidence
DNA exonerations occur when a person who had previously been found guilty or even pled guilty to a crime is cleared of the offense because of DNA evidence. This could be someone else’s DNA found on the crime scene, implicating another suspect, or an absence of the original suspect’s DNA. When it comes to evidence, DNA is the most powerful. So, why do some prosecutors remain unmoved in the face of it? [Read more…]
Cops Don’t Want Their DNA Taken
Over the past several years, we’ve heard about DNA databases designed to keep tabs on convicted criminals. These databases are designed to catalog the identifying information to potentially help solve future crimes. But some in the criminal justice world think that the same sort of cataloging should be done on police officers. Understandably, many officers object. [Read more…]
New Court Evidence Ruling Coming Soon
Only a year after the Supreme Court’s controversial Melendez-Diaz decision, court watchers are awaiting possible revisions to that decision. [Read more…]
DNA Evidence in Criminal Cases Can Be Falsified and Manufactured
A new article in the New York Times outlines how comparatively easy it is to falsify DNA evidence in criminal cases. [Read more…]
