The expanding use of DNA in law enforcement: What role for privacy?

Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics

Volumn 34, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 153-164

  Rothstein, Mark A ^a,b   Talbott, Meghan K ^b  

^a Department of Law and Medicine ^*

^b University of Louisville School of Medicine   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CONFERENCE PAPER; DNA FINGERPRINTING; EUROPE; GENETIC PRIVACY; HUMAN; LAW ENFORCEMENT; LEGAL ASPECT; NUCLEIC ACID DATABASE; UNITED STATES;

DATABASES, NUCLEIC ACID; DNA FINGERPRINTING; EUROPE; GENETIC PRIVACY; HUMANS; LAW ENFORCEMENT; UNITED STATES;

EID: 33745348875     PISSN: 10731105     EISSN: 1748720X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1748-720X.2006.00024.x     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (96)

1. See T. Simoncelli and B. Steinhardt, California's Proposition 69 : A Dangerous Precedent for Criminal DNA Databases, "Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 33 (2005): 279-293, at 282; Reprinted in Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 34 (2006): 199-213;M. Ballve, "DNA Fingerprinting Trend Threatens Genetic Privacy," Pacific News Service, July 14, 2004, at http://www.alternet.org/rights/19234/ (last visited February 6, 2006). This article points out that in 2003 alone, over a dozen states changed their laws to expand the scope of their DNA collection.
2. Cal. Pen. Code § 296 ( West Supp. 2005 T. Simoncelli and B. Steinhardt, supra note 1, at 279.
3. La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §15.609.
4. Tex. Gov't Code Ann. §411.1471.
5. Va. Code Ann. §19.2-310.2:1.
6. Title X of the Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005, Pub. Law No. 109-162, 119 Stat. 2960 ( 2006.
7. See National Institute of Justice, National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence The Future of Forensic DNA Testing: Predictions of the Research and Development Working Group 2000 : at 35 hereinafter "The Future of DNA Testing" A Search for Justice in Our Genes New York Times, May 7, 2002, available at http://www.law.yale.edu/out-side/html/Public_Affairs/246/ yls_article.htm ( last visited February 6, 2006); D. H. Kaye, et al., "Is a DNA Identification Database in Your Future¿" Criminal Justice 16 (2001): 4-11.
8. D. H. Kaye, supra note 8, at 19.
9. C. Rosen Liberty, Privacy, and DNA Databases The New Atlantis 1 ( 2003 37 52.
10. M. J. Boavida Portugal Plans a Forensic Genetic Database of its Entire Population Newropeans Magazine, April 11, 2005, at http://www.newropeans- magazine.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2063&Itemid= 121 ( last visited February 6, 2006).
11. Id.
12. S. Alling P. S. Lane, Division of Governmental Studies and Services, Washington State University National Forensics DNA Study Report 2003 Appendix 3d, at 46, available at http://www.dna.gov/pubs/gen_interest ( last visited February 15, 2006).
13. These expenses could vary depending on how the samples are collected, analyzed and stored, but would conceivably include the cost of devices and materials for collecting, analyzing, storing, and accessing the data, as well as the cost of training and labor cost of personnel needed to run the system. Although there have been no estimates of the cost of a universal database in the U.S., estimates done in Europe and per person profile costs can serve as a basis for a rough estimate. Based on the conservative estimate of $60 per person it would cost approximately $18 billion for the profiles. Based on the £5.5 billion estimate made by the British government for its 60 million inhabitants, it would cost $50 billion to create a national database in the U.S. (Government estimate of £5.5 billion, others up to £20 billion, for a universal database involving the approximately 60 million people in the U.K.)
14. A. Deane Identity Cards in Britain Contemporary Review 286, no. 11672 ( 2005 268 270, at 269 Boavida, supra note 11 (estimate of Portugal universal database made at 40-80 euros per person) American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics DNA Fingerprinting and Civil Liberties Project Description, at http://www.aslme.org/dna_04/description.php ( last visited February 7, 2006), estimating $50 to $100 per profile.
15. CODIS Program, Mission Statement & Background, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) website, at http://www.fbi.gov/hq/lab/codis/program.htm ( last visited February 7, 2006).
16. Paul Ferrara Dr.., Director of the Virginia Division of Forensic Science, more than half the violent crimes solved by the use of the state database involved DNA samples obtained from convicted burglers. R. Willing DNA Links Burglars to Harder Crime USA Today, December 7, 1998. CODIS Program, Measuring Success, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) website, at http://www.fbi.gov/ hq/lab/codis/suc-cess.htm ( last visited February 7, 2006). FBI, Uniform Crime Reports, Crime in the United States, 1995, 2004, available at http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm ( last visited February 7, 2006).
17. R. Willing DNA Matches Win Few Convictions in Va USA Today, November 7, 2005.
18. S. McVicker More DPS Labs Flawed: DNA Testing Woes Across State Threaten Thousands of Cases Houston Chronicle, March 28, 2004, at A1; K. Herbert, "Crime-lab Mistakes Spark Alert: Hundreds of Pa. Cases May Be Reexamined," Philadelphia Inquirer, June 19, 2003, at A01; R. Willing, "Mueller Defends Crime Lab After Questionable DNA Tests," USA Today, May 1, 2003, at A03; L. Hart, "DNA Lab's Woes Cast Doubt on 68 Prison Terms: Forensic Science at a Houston Police Unit Was Plagued by Problems. The inmates for Whom Retesting is Ordered Include 17 on Death Row," Los Angeles Times, March 31, 2003; R. Stutzman, "State DNA Analyst's Data: Forgeries Could Result in New Trial for Rapist," Orlando Sentinel, July 25, 2002; D. Baldwin, "Gilchrist Faces More Scrutiny: Review Ordered in Three Death-row Cases," Daily Oklahoman, July 17, 2001; L. Gorman, "The Brady Solution: A Due Process Remedy for those Convicted with Evidence from Faulty Crime Labs," University of San Francisco Law Review 39 (2005): 725-727.
19. Willis v. Artuz, 301 F.3d 65, 66 (2d Cir. 2002) Jones v. Murray, 962 F.2d 302, 306 (4th Cir. 1992).
20. D.H.. H and M. E. Smith DNA Databases for Law Enforcement: The Coverage Question and the Case for a Population-Wide Database in D. Lazer, ed., DNA and the Criminal Justice System: The Technology of Justice ( Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, 2004 247 284, at 269 271.
21. T. Duster Behavior Genetics and Explanations of the Link Between Crime, Violence, and Race in E. Parens A. R. Chapman N. Press, eds., Wrestling with Behavioral Genetics: Science, Ethics and Public Conversation ( Baltimore, MD : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006 150 175, at 168.
22. J. Wambaugh, The Blooding ( New York, NY : Morrow, 1989).
23. Id.
24. J.S.. S, Note The Blooding of America: Privacy and the DNA Dragnet Cardozo Law Review 23 ( 2002 2277 2368, at 2285.
25. T. Simoncelli and B. Steinhardt, supra note 1, at 285.
26. F. W. Drobner DNA Dragnets: Constitutional Aspects of Mass Identification Testing Capital University Law Review 28 ( 2000 479 511, at 485.
27. T. Simoncelli and B. Steinhardt, supra note 1, at 285.
28. F. W. Drobner, supra note 28, at 481.
29. J. S. Grand, supra note 26, at 2280-2281.
30. K. Bersett Victims Challenge Police Use of Controversial 'DNA Dragnets' The New Standard, at http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action= show_item&itemid=1044 ( last visited February 7, 2006).
31. American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, supra note 14.
32. T. Simoncelli and B. Steinhardt, supra note 1, at 285 A. B. Chapin Arresting DNA: Privacy Expectations of Free Citizens Versus Post-Convicted Persons and the Unconstitutionality of DNA Dragnets Minnesota Law Review 89 ( 2005 1842 1875, at 1859.
33. S. F. Kreimer Truth Machines and Consequences: The Light and Dark Side of Accuracy in Criminal Justice New York University Annual Survey of American Law ( 2005 655 674, at n. 54.
34. Editors, "DNA Dragnets," The New Atlantis 8 ( 2005 104 106.
35. D. Shepardson Suspects No More, They Want Blood Back Detroit News, July 24, 1995, at 1C, noting that police planned to retain for thirty years the voluntarily donated DNA samples of 160 men declared innocent of the crime under investigation; see also M. Hibbert, "DNA Databanks: Law Enforcement's Greatest Surveillance Tool¿" Wake Forest Law Review 34 (1999): 767-825, at 809, noting that the DNA of convicted individuals who are later exonerated is sometimes not expunged from state databanks; R. Willing, "ACLU Seeks to End DNA Dragnet in Search for Killer in Mass. Town," USA Today, January 11, 2005, at 6A, explaining that only one innocent individual has been successful in suing for the return of his DNA sample.
36. A.B.. B, supra note 34, at 1846.
37. Id. see J. S. Grand, supra note 26, at 2283.
38. J. S. Grand, supra note 26, at 2279-2280.
39. Editors, supra note 36 A. B. Chapin, supra note 34, at 1842.
40. K. Bersett, supra note 32.
41. California v. Greenwood, 486 U.S. 35, 37, 40 ( 1988). State constitutional law, however, may recognize an individual's interest in abandoned property. See, e.g., State v. Goss, 834 A.2d 316 (N.H. 2003).
42. Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 499 ( 1975 [G]enerally [a plaintiff] must assert his own legal rights and interests, and cannot rest his claim to relief on the legal rights or interests of third parties §10-3-1104.7 ( 2004 Fla. Stat. Ann. §760.40 (West Supp.); Ga. Code. Ann., §33-54-3, §33-54-5 (2005).
43. J. M. Butler, Forensic Typing: Biology and Technology Behind STRMarkers ( San Diego, CA : Academic Press, 2001 323.
44. F. R. Bieber Science and Technology of Forensic DNA Profiling: Current Use and Future Directions in D. Lazer, ed., DNA and the Criminal Justice System ( Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, 2004 23 62, at 47.
45. Id.
46. Mass. Regs. Code tit. 515, §2.14 ( WESTLAW through November 18, 2005).
47. N.Y. Comp. Codes, R. & Regs. tit. 9, § 6192.3 ( WESTLAW through July 31, 2005).
48. F. R. Bieber, supra note 45, at 48.
49. F. R. Bieber, et al. ( in press).
50. R. Williams and P. Johnson Inclusiveness, Effectiveness, and Intrusiveness: Illusion in the Developing Uses of DNA Profiling in Support of Criminal Investigations Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics 33 ( 2005 558 558, at 454. Reprinted in Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics 34 (2005): 234-247.
51. F. R. Bieber, supra note 46, at 49-50.
52. 45 C.F.R. Parts 160, 164 ( 2004).
53. 45 C.F.R. §164.512(f)(2)(i).
54. 45 C.F.R. §164.512(f)(2)(ii).
55. 45 C.F.R. §164.512 (f)(1)(i), (ii).
56. 45 C.F.R. 165.512 (f)(1)(ii)(C)(1).
57. T. Frudakis K. Venkateswarlu M. J. Thomas, et al. A Classifier for the SNP-based Inference of Ancestry Journal of Forensic Sciences 49 ( 2004 1145 1146 F. R. Bieber, supra note 46, at 36-37.
58. M.A.. A Applications of Behavioural Genetics: Outpacing the Science Nature Reviews Genetics 6 ( 2005 793 798.
59. Id.
60. A. B. Chapin, supra note 34, at 1859.
61. S. Axelrad Survey of State DNA Database Statutes 2005) available at http://www.aslme.org/dna04/grid/statutegrid.html ( last visited February 6, 2006). Wisconsin is the only state that requires the destruction of all offender samples after analysis is performed.
62. See Future of Forensic DNA Testing, supra note 7, at 36.
63. S. Axelrad, supra note 64, at 5.
64. Id., at 4.
65. Id., at 5.
66. Wis. Stat. Ann. § 165.77 (West Supp. 2004 requiring destruction after analysis has been completed and the applicable court proceedings have ended).
67. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-4105 ( 2005).
68. Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 13-610 ( 2005).
69. S. Axelrad, supra note 64, at 4.
70. Id.
71. Id.
72. Id.
73. 730 Ill. Comp. Stat. Ann. § 5/5-4-3 (West Supp. 2005).
74. S. Axelrad, supra note 64, at 4.
75. Id.
76. Cal. Pen. Code § 299 (West Supp. 2005).
77. S. Axelrad, supra note 64, at grid.
78. Cal. Pen. Code § 297.
79. The Future of Forensic DNA, supra note 7, at 36.
80. Ala. Code §§36-18-24(e), 36-28-31(b)(3).
81. S. Axelrad, supra note 64, at 5.
82. Ala. Code § 36-18-31.
83. S. Axelrad, supra note 64.
84. Id.
85. M. A. Rothstein Genetic Exceptionalism and Legislative Pragmatism Hastings Center Report 35, no. 4 ( 2005 27 33.
86. D.H.. H and M. E. Smith, supra note 22.
87. 385 U.S. 323 ( 1966).
88. Id., at 343.
89. D.H.. H & M. E. Smith, supra note 22.
90. 116 U.S. 616 (1886).
91. Id., at 635.
92. 367 U.S. 643 ( 1961).
93. Id., at 659.
94. 277 U.S. 438 1928).
95. Id., at 478.
96. Id., at 479.