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DNA Case Heads To U.S. Supreme Court
November 12, 2012
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Photo: iStockPhoto.com
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The U.S. Supreme Court will rule on whether police can collect DNA evidence from violent suspects to convict them in other crimes, when justices hear the Maryland case.
A convicted rapist is challenging a Maryland law that allows police to take a DNA sample from violent suspects, arguing his Fourth Amendment privacy rights have been violated.
In Maryland v. King, police took a DNA sample from Alonzo Jay King Jr. after his 2009 arrest on assault charges. King was later convicted in an unsolved rape case from 2003. The Maryland Court of Appeals overturned King's rape conviction in April, ruling that the collection of DNA evidence violated his Fourth Amendment rights and constituted a warrentless seizure.
Maryland's law, which went into effect in 2009, expanded the collection of DNA samples from those convicted of crimes to those who have been arrested for violent crime or burglary, even if they were not found guilty. More than half of the states currently collect DNA samples from suspects of violent crime, reports the Baltimore Sun.
Tags: DNA Evidence, U.S. Supreme Court Cases, Fourth Amendment, Search and Seizure, Investigations
Comments (2)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2
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RICHARD @ 11/12/2012 6:08 PM
THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM VS. THE ENFORCEMENT SYSTEM, WILL WE EVER GET ON THE SAME PAGE.
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steve @ 11/13/2012 5:13 AM
If you have been arrested for any crime and are being booked into a jail, when they fingerprint you they should also take your DNA. It's the same rationale (you can be identified via your fingerprints as well as your DNA), and then we can get more criminals off the streets and clear up cold cases.
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