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CQ DNA Database.PDF T H E CQResearcherPUBLISHED BY CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY INC. DNA Databases Does expanding them threaten civil liberties? NA identification has moved from an ex- perimental technique to an established crime-solving tool for police and prosecu- tors in the United States, as well as other nations.D Now, law enforcement agencies are creating DNA I N databases of criminal offenders that can be used to link THIS ISSUE S THE ISSUES ........................... 451 criminals or suspects to unsolved crimes. All 50 states I BACKGROUND ..................... 457 have laws requiring DNA profiling of some offenders, and D CHRONOLOGY ..................... 459 some law enforcement officials want to compile DNA E CURRENT SITUATION ........... 463 profiles of arrestees as well. Defense lawyers are also AT ISSUE ................................ 465 using DNA analysis to challenge old convictions; more OUTLOOK............................. 467 than 60 prisoners — some on death row — have been BIBLIOGRAPHY .................... 469 exonerated by DNA testing. But civil liberties and privacy THE NEXT STEP .................... 470 advocates say expanding government DNA databases will lead to misuse of sensitive personal information that can be gleaned from DNA analysis. May 28, 1999 • Volume 9, No. 20 • Pages 449–472 DNA DATABASES T H THE ISSUES OUTLOOK CQE Researcher May 28, 1999 • Should the use of DNA New Applications Volume 9, No. 20 451 databases be expanded? 467 New uses of DNA identifi- EDITOR • Do DNA databases pose cation are being found, but Sandra Stencel a threat to individual civil liberties advocates rights? worry about abuse. MANAGING EDITOR Thomas J. Colin SIDEBARS AND STAFF WRITERS BACKGROUND Adriel Bettelheim GRAPHICS Mary H. Cooper The Power of DNA Kenneth Jost 457 The ability of DNA typing DNA Testing Frees Many Kathy Koch to convict the guilty and 453 Convicted Offenders David Masci exonerate the innocent At least 62 offenders have PRODUCTION EDITOR was first demonstrated in been freed, including some Angela S. Dixon 1987 in an English court- on death row. room. EDITORIAL ASSISTANT DNA Testing Helps Free Laura S. Cavender 455 Inmates After Years in 458 Fighting for Acceptance Prison PUBLISHED BY Some experts initially Two innocent Oklahoma Congressional Quarterly Inc. questioned the degree of men waited 10 years. certainty that could be CHAIRMAN given to a DNA match 456 All States Provide for DNA Andrew Barnes within a particular racial or Databases VICE CHAIRMAN ethnic grouping. All the laws at least cover Andrew P. Corty sexual offenders. PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER Gaining Acceptance Robert W. Merry 460 By the mid-1990s, DNA Chronology 459 Key events since 1953. evidence had become an EXECUTIVE EDITOR David Rapp established forensic Databases and DNA Drag- technique. 461 nets Aid Police in England Thousands of DNA samples Copyright 1999 Congressional Quarterly Inc., All Creating Databases have been collected in some Rights Reserved. CQ does not convey any license, 462 States began passing laws high-profile cases. right, title or interest in any information — includ- requiring DNA samples ing information provided to CQ from third parties At Issue — transmitted via any CQ publication or electronic from some convicted 465 transmission unless previously specified in writing. offenders as early as 1988. Should DNA be collected No part of any CQ publication or transmission may from arrestees and included be republished, reproduced, transmitted, down- in law enforcement databases? loaded or distributed by any means whether elec- tronic or mechanical without prior written permis- CURRENT SITUATION sion of CQ. Unauthorized reproduction or trans- DNA Testing of Newborns mission of CQ copyrighted material is a violation 466 Stirs Privacy Debate of federal law carrying civil fines of up to $100,000 Expanding Databases Some people are pushing and serious criminal sanctions or imprisonment. 463 Despite implementation profiling of babies at birth. Bibliographic records and abstracts included in problems, many states The Next Step section of this publication are the want to expand DNA copyrighted material of UMI, and are used with databases to cover more FOR FURTHER permission. convicted offenders. RESEARCH The CQ Researcher (ISSN 1056-2036). Published weekly, except Jan. 1, April 2, July 2, Dec. 3, Dec. 31, by Congressional Quarterly Inc., 1414 Working the Cases Bibliography 22nd St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037. Annual 464 Police are using DNA in 469 Selected sources used. subscription rate for libraries, businesses and imaginative, new ways to government is $396. Single issues are available The Next Step for $10 (subscribers) or $20 (non-subscribers). investigate and prosecute 470 Quantity discounts apply to orders over 10. cases. Additional articles from Binders are available for $18. Additional rates current periodicals. furnished upon request. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C., and additional mailing of- fices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Cover: Jenifer A.L. Smith, chief of the FBI’s DNA Analysis Unit I, explains how DNA samples The CQ Researcher, 1414 22nd St., N.W., Wash- helped convict a rapist in Milwaukee. (Reuters/Rick Wilking, Nov. 12, 1997) ington, D.C. 20037. 450 CQ Researcher DNA Databases BY KENNETH JOST about the science of DNA identi- THE ISSUES fication have faded away. But some civil liberties and privacy advocates are assailing moves by ew York City police arrested law enforcement agencies to con- Isaac Jones in April outside struct a nationwide computer da- N a pawnshop in the Bronx. tabase of DNA profiles of criminal He was waiting in a car while his offenders. Law enforcement offi- girlfriend redeemed a diamond cials say police and prosecutors pendant that had been taken from can use the databases to link sus- a rape victim. 1 pects and offenders to crimes that At first, Jones denied any knowl- otherwise would either go un- edge of the attack, according to solved or require substantial police. When detectives threatened courtrooms in 1987, DNA profiling, amounts of time and money to solve. to charge his girlfriend, however, or so-called genetic fingerprinting, has Critics, however, fear the databases Jones reportedly admitted that he was evolved from a controversial forensic will be abused. “There is a frighten- the man police had been hunting in novelty to a powerful and widely ac- ing potential for a brave new world a string of rapes dating back to 1993. cepted tool for identification in crimi- where genetic information is routinely Jones, who had previous convic- nal investigations and prosecutions. 2 collected and its use results in abuse tions for sodomy and unlawful im- DNA identification has also been used and discrimination,” says Barry prisonment of a woman, could not in some 60 cases in the United States Steinhardt, associate director of the recall details of the other attacks, to exonerate defendants wrongfully American Civil Liberties Union police said, so they charged him in convicted years ago — freeing in- (ACLU). Employers and insurers, for only four assaults. But an analysis of mates from death rows or long prison example, could uncover a worker’s the DNA contained in a sample of sentences. (See story, p. 455.) predisposition to disease and use the Jones’ blood showed a likely match “It’s the most significant advance- information to exclude him from em- with DNA samples obtained in many ment in investigative tools at least in ployment or insurance coverage. other rapes.* “We have 17 positive this century,” says Christopher The same biological sample used hits of DNA evidence leading back to Asplen, a federal prosecutor who is for DNA identification “can also be Isaac Jones as the rapist,” First Deputy currently serving as executive direc- used for a full biological dissection of Police Commissioner Patrick Kelleher tor of the Justice Department’s Na- that person,” says geneticist Paul told reporters. tional Commission on the Future of Billings, who edited a collection of Acquaintances from Jones’ Bronx DNA Evidence. “It’s one of the most critical essays about DNA identifica- apartment house and the New York accurate technologies we have. It has tion several years ago. 3 office building where he worked as an incredible ability not just to con- Law enforcement officials note, a floor polisher described Jones as vict the guilty but also to exonerate however, that the DNA used for iden- polite and friendly and voiced sur- the innocent.” tification purposes actually does not prise at his arrest. “The DNA evi- Walter Rowe, a leading academic contain genes and thus provides no dence speaks for itself as to what forensic scientist, says that DNA typ- genetic information about a person: kind of individual he really is,” ing, in fact, is going beyond the iden- “junk DNA,” they call it. But critics Kelleher responded. “We got a very, tification technique introduced at the emphasize that law enforcement very dangerous individual off the turn of the century: fingerprinting. agencies retain the original samples streets of New York.” “Now we’re probably more likely to collected from criminal offenders — Introduced in U.S. and British recover usable DNA from a scene than usually blood or saliva — making it a fingerprint,” says Rowe, a professor possible to use the samples for other * DNA — deoxyribonucleic acid — is the basic genetic substance of all living cells. Embedded at George Washington University in purposes. “Whoever holds those in the giant DNA molecules — identical Washington, D.C. “We’re now start- samples has full access to all the throughout the body — is the hereditary information that determines everything from eye ing to do DNA work from animals and genetic information about that per- color to predisposition to some diseases. In plants. It may be the greatest advance son,” Billings says. addition, a DNA molecule contains stretches of chemical building blocks with repetitive patterns in forensic science in history.” Steinhardt also warns against what that vary from individual to individual. Most of the early controversies he calls the “creeping expansion” of CQ on the Web: www.cq.com May 28, 1999 451 DNA DATABASES databases.
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