Monthly Archives: September 2010

Expert Panel to Discuss Controversial Familial DNA Searching at 21st International Symposium on Human Identification

Posted on September 29, 2010 by | Comments Off on Expert Panel to Discuss Controversial Familial DNA Searching at 21st International Symposium on Human Identification


Business Wire
MADISON, Wis.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The controversial use of familial searching is among the timely issues in DNA analysis that will be debated at this year’s International Symposium on Human Identification (ISHI). The symposium, held October 11-14 in San Antonio, is the only conference to focus exclusively on DNA analysis and attracts forensic scientists from around the world.

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Posted in DNA Education, New ID Technologies, Press Releases

Message from Mariska Hargitay: The Shame of Rape-Kit Backlogs

Posted on September 29, 2010 by | Comments Off on Message from Mariska Hargitay: The Shame of Rape-Kit Backlogs


Good Housekeeping.com
National studies have shown that cases in which rape-kit evidence was tested were much more likely to advance through the criminal justice system and lead to arrests. New York City’s arrest rate for rape rose from 40 percent to 70 percent once it adopted the policy to test every booked rape kit. In Los Angeles, a recent decision to test every booked rape kit uncovered DNA evidence from suspects in additional rape cases. Testing every kit, and giving law enforcement the resources they need to investigate sexual assaults fully, makes a dramatic difference in victims’ lives — and public safety.

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Posted in Backlogs

Three-way Crime Focus At Justice Meeting

Posted on September 29, 2010 by | Comments Off on Three-way Crime Focus At Justice Meeting


4NI.co.UK
There was a both a cross-border and a cross-channel focus on crime as David Ford, the Stormont Justice Minister, attended the first trilateral meeting with the Irish Republic’s Dermot Ahern and Kenny MacAskill from Scotland.

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Posted in Database

DeWine promises to improve crime lab, fight Obama plan

Posted on September 29, 2010 by | Comments Off on DeWine promises to improve crime lab, fight Obama plan

Ohio.com
DeWine said his biggest challenge will be to fix what’s wrong with the state crime lab, where he said slow processing times for DNA tests, rape kits, fingerprints and other forensic evidence are inhibiting law enforcement around the state.

”The efficiency level there is abysmal, and has very real, very serious consequences for victims of crime and for public safety,” he said. ” . . . We need an attorney general that thinks like a prosecutor, and who understands the pain and anguish of crime victims.”

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Police to trial while-you-wait DNA tests

Posted on September 29, 2010 by | Comments Off on Police to trial while-you-wait DNA tests


Thinq.co.uk
Police will soon have the means to grab someone’s genetic sample and run it through the national DNA database while waiting in the street, if early trials by military industrial giant Lockheed Martin are successful.

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Posted in Database, New ID Technologies

Bode Technology Expands Its Cutting Edge RFID Technology To Law Enforcement Units For First Time

Posted on September 29, 2010 by | Comments Off on Bode Technology Expands Its Cutting Edge RFID Technology To Law Enforcement Units For First Time


Business Wire
GlobalOptions Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: GLOI), a leading provider of domestic and international risk management services, today announced that Bode Technology, one of the world’s largest forensic DNA analysis firms, has begun offering its new state-of-the-art Bode-RFID™ tracking system to law enforcement agencies and crime laboratories nationwide in an effort to streamline work flows and help control costs in the ever-growing field of evidence tracking and analysis. The new system will enable field investigators and laboratory analysts to cut costs and effectively automate and manage a process which has been traditionally slow.

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Posted in New ID Technologies

Backlogs linger at Houston crime lab

Posted on September 29, 2010 by | Comments Off on Backlogs linger at Houston crime lab


Associated Press
A growing backlog at the Houston police crime lab has a prosecutor lobbying to have all new blood and DNA evidence sent to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences for testing.

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Posted in Backlogs

Leahy To Introduce Reauthorization Of Landmark Justice For All Act

Posted on September 28, 2010 by | Comments Off on Leahy To Introduce Reauthorization Of Landmark Justice For All Act


Patricky Leahy Website
The Justice for All Act made modest but rare reforms in the way the death penalty is used in the criminal justice system. It also improved support services for crime victims, and provided important tools and assistance to help state and local governments use DNA evidence to convict guilty offenders and exonerate the innocent. The Justice for All Reauthorization Act will extend, strengthen and improve many of the 2004 reforms.

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Posted in DNA Legislation

Amateur search group claims grave of Russia’s ‘man in iron mask’ found

Posted on September 28, 2010 by | Comments Off on Amateur search group claims grave of Russia’s ‘man in iron mask’ found


Rianovosti Russia
The remains of Ivan VI of Russia, an ousted Russian 18th century infant tsar who spent most of his life in solitary confinement, have probably been found in northern Russia, the head of an amateur search group said on Monday.

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Posted in Ancient DNA, Current Cases

Remains of More than ten fallen Finnish wartime MIAs found this year in Russia

Posted on September 28, 2010 by | Comments Off on Remains of More than ten fallen Finnish wartime MIAs found this year in Russia


HELSINGIN SANOMAT Finland
”I phoned my children and told them that my father was coming home”, says Maija Kivipelto, 74, recalling the moment some years ago when she heard that the body of her father Juho Niemi had been found – almost 70 years after he had died.

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Posted in Backlogs, Current Cases, Database

DNA samples from Indian millionaire’s family needed

Posted on September 28, 2010 by | Comments Off on DNA samples from Indian millionaire’s family needed


The Star Online Kuala Lumpur
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police are seeking Interpol’s assistance in the case of the missing multi-millionaire Indian businessman who was allegedly last seen with the two lawyer brothers being held over the murder of Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and three others.

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Posted in Current Cases

26 Years Later, Man Tried For Teen’s Death

Posted on September 27, 2010 by | Comments Off on 26 Years Later, Man Tried For Teen’s Death


WCVB The BostonChannel.com
BOSTON — Elsie “Yolanda” Hernandez was an 18-year-old cashier at a Roxbury department store who was looking forward to starting classes at Northeastern University when she was killed while walking home from work.

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Posted in Cold Cases, Database

Casey Anthony case: DNA tests on Caylee’s shorts must be done in U.S., judge says

Posted on September 27, 2010 by | Comments Off on Casey Anthony case: DNA tests on Caylee’s shorts must be done in U.S., judge says

The Orlando Sentinel
The judge in the Casey Anthony case said today he may allow the defense’s request for DNA tests of Caylee’s shorts.

Judge Belvin Perry said he is inclined to let the shorts and a canvas bag found near Caylee’s remains to be tested, but he insists “the tests will have to be done here in the United States.”

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Posted in Current Cases

The Innocence Project and Winston & Strawn Launch First Online Database of DNA Wrongful Convictions

Posted on September 27, 2010 by | Comments Off on The Innocence Project and Winston & Strawn Launch First Online Database of DNA Wrongful Convictions

PR Newswire
NEW YORK, Sept. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Innocence Project and Winston & Strawn LLP today launched InnocenceRecord.org, the first on-line, searchable database of the court records and other data of the cases of those who have been wrongfully convicted and later exonerated through DNA evidence.

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Posted in Database, Innocence Project

State Laws on DNA Data Banks

Posted on September 26, 2010 by | Comments Off on State Laws on DNA Data Banks

National Conference on State Legislatures NCSL
All 50 states require that convicted sex offenders provide a DNA sample, and states are increasingly expanding these policies to include all felons and some misdemeanor To date, 47 states require that all convicted felons provide a DNA sample to the state’s database.

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Posted in Database, DNA Legislation