Indiana- Eight months after a law requiring state police to collect DNA samples from anyone arrested on a felony charge took effect, the policymakers behind the measure are praising what they see as positive results.
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Posted in Cold Cases, Database, DNA Legislation
Ancestry, 23andMe and other popular companies that offer genetic testing pledged on Tuesday to be upfront when they share users’ DNA data with researchers, hand it over to police or transfer it to other companies, a move aimed at addressing consumers’ mounting privacy concerns.
Under the new guidelines, the companies said they would obtain consumers’ “separate express consent” before turning over their individual genetic information to businesses and other third parties, including insurers. They also said they would disclose the number of law-enforcement requests they receive each year.
RICHMOND, Va. (WHSV) — The DNA data bank in Richmond is adding two additional misdemeanors requiring DNA collection because of a new law passed in the Virginia General Assembly — which was inspired by the deaths of Morgan Harrington and Hannah Graham.
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Posted in DNA Legislation
June 19, news broke that DC had indicted a DNA profile the month before. Authorities couldn’t ID their suspect by name, but they had to act because the clock was ticking: If they waited much longer, they wouldn’t be able to prosecute sexual assaults committed by a serial hotel rapist in 2003.
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Posted in DNA Legislation
Standing underneath a projection of their daughter’s high school senior portrait, Hannah Graham’s parents watched Gov. Ralph Northam sign legislation they hope will help prevent violent crimes similar to the one that took their daughter.
More than three years after the University of Virginia second year was abducted and murdered, state legislators this year passed two bills that mandate DNA analysis for people convicted of misdemeanor criminal trespassing or assault and battery.
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Posted in DNA Legislation
AUSTIN — A judge has tossed out some DNA evidence that prosecutors planned to present at the trial for the man charged with with killing a University of Texas student on campus in 2016, KVUE’s news partners at the Austin American-Statesman report.
Meechaiel Criner appeared in court Monday and Tuesday where a discussion regarding the DNA collection software used during the investigation unfolded.
France is obstructing Britain’s bid to remain in an EU security network that helps members catch foreign criminals.
The UK government wants continued access to a shared database that helped French and Belgian authorities identify the terrorists responsible for the Paris attacks in November 2015.
Ministers have said Britain’s ability to access and share vital DNA, fingerprint and vehicle data under the so-called Prum convention is ‘clearly in the national interest’.
But France led the resistance against Britain’s efforts to join a ‘Prum 2’ at a recent meeting to discuss security after Brexit.
Police in the German state of Bavaria will have new powers to use forensic DNA profiling after a controversial law passed today in the Landtag, the state parliament in Munich. The law is the first in Germany that allows authorities to use DNA to help determine the physical characteristics, such as eye color, of an unknown culprit.
The new DNA rules are part of a broader law which has drawn criticism of the wide surveillance powers it gives the state’s police to investigate people they deem an “imminent danger,” people who haven’t necessarily committed any crimes but might be planning to do so.
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Posted in DNA Legislation
On May 25, the state Senate Appropriations Committee will decide if two bills that would demand the speedy testing of California’s large backlog of rape kits and the timely testing of all newly-collected rape kits will move forward.
AB3118 requires the first-ever statewide inventory of untested rape kits in California. At present, state officials have no idea how many kits are sitting on shelves across the state.
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Posted in DNA Legislation
CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) -It’s a healing environment for sexual assault victims. A place where survivors can tell their story when no one else will listen.
Jennifer Schlosser is with the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center and is glad that legislation is being proposed to remove the statute of limitations on sexual assault cases in Ohio.
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Posted in DNA Legislation
Several years ago, the Supreme Court considered the case of Alonzo Jay King Jr. Arrested in an assault in Maryland, he ended up being charged and convicted in an unsolved rape case after a sample of his DNA, which police collected while booking him, returned a match in a statewide database. King, who had been sentenced to life in prison, argued that the Maryland law allowing the warrantless, suspicionless collection of his DNA violated the Fourth Amendment.
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Posted in DNA Legislation
Governor Justice signed the bill last week. The bill allows the West Virginia State Police to contract with the Marshall University Forensic Science Center to process lab work related to the testing of offender samples for the Combined DNA Index System, and DNA testing in criminal paternity cases, criminal casework and identification of human remains.
It also sets parameters in which law enforcement and correctional officers can use reasonable force to obtain DNA samples and allows for collection of mouth swabs.
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Posted in DNA Legislation, Forensic Industry News
April 3 (UPI) — The California Supreme Court on Monday held up a controversial state law that allows law enforcement officers to take DNA from anybody arrested or charged with a felony.
In a 4-3 vote, the court ruled in favor of the law, which has allowed California law enforcement officials to create a DNA database of tens of thousands of people who were arrested but never charged or convicted.
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Posted in DNA Legislation, Forensic Industry News
CLEVELAND, Ohio – In a decision issued today, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that death row inmate Tyrone Noling can have access to only part of the powerful DNA evidence his legal team says could point to another killer.
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Posted in Case Law, DNA Legislation
There are crimes uncommitted because of Brianna Denison.
Denison, a 19-year-old college student who was raped and murdered in Reno in 2008, became the catalyst for a Nevada law that is preventing and solving crimes.
The law passed in 2013 requires that DNA from people arrested on felony charges in Nevada be collected and entered into a database.
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Posted in DNA Legislation, Forensic Industry News
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