The DNA Informant
Volume 2, October 4, 2005

In the past two weeks a new grant has been announced by the Department of Justice, as part of President Bush's five-year, $1billion DNA initiative to improve the nation's capacity to use DNA evidence.

This funding represents the largest amount of money provided by the Department to support state and local forensic efforts, and is exactly what labs such as the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences are awaiting to chip away at the state's horrendous backlog of cases awaiting analysis.

However, legislators here have yet to do their part to ensure that suspected criminals get a speedy trial, crime victims get justice and cold cases are solved. Poor funding has left Alabama saddled with an embarrassing, alternate version of CSI: consistently slow investigations. The Department of Forensic Sciences has 16,000 cases waiting analysis and gets 150 new DNA-related cases and 300 toxicology cases a month. Testing of evidence in murder, rape and other cases can take two or three years. That's unacceptable. The slow investigations occur because legislators have neglected the department's needs. It hasn't seen an increase in state funding in a decade.

In Hawaii , the Honolulu Police Department's forensic team faces several challenges. They already have a backlog of cases, and DNA analysts are now getting ready to handle even more responsibility. On average, a simple case can take about a week while a more complicated case could take months to solve. The DNA division has six analysts and a backlog of 30 cases. Now, the team is bracing for another challenge. A new law means workers will have to collect, analyze and store an estimated 40,000 samples from all of Hawaii 's convicted felons. They are looking to increase the staff, get more funding, and increase the space so that they can best accommodate the law.

As these and other labs face financial challenges, the Department of Justice's latest announcement was for $98 Million in grants. The funds will be applied in the elimination of casework and convicted offender backlogs; the funding of research and development; the improvement of crime lab capacity; the provision of training for all stakeholders in the criminal justice system; and testing to identify the missing. State and local labs go through an application process to determine their eligibility for funds.

“According to a study funded by the Department of Justice, an estimated 542,700 cases either have biological evidence still in the possession of local law enforcement or backlogged at forensic crime laboratories. With these grants, the Department of Justice has ensured that local jurisdictions, which often have the greatest DNA backlogs, can directly benefit from federal funds.”

As the use of DNA testing continues to increase in popularity, so do the efforts to support it through funding and creative programs that will help to reduce backlogs and take criminals off the streets.

King County, Seattle, prosecutors, emboldened by advances in DNA testing and other crime-solving technologies, announced Wednesday they will form a cold-case unit dedicated to cracking 550 unsolved killings -- some as old as 40 years.

Although the use of DNA evidence is seen on a larger scale in cases where criminals are being convicted, the number of exonerations continues to rise.

A lawyer for a man who spent 18 years behind bars for murder before being freed because of new DNA tests said that he intends to find the real killer. Larry Leroy Peterson , had his conviction thrown out in July because DNA tests could not prove he had anything to do with the slaying. Peterson, 54, was released from jail on bail last month.

AKRON -- The Summit County prosecutor's office plans to review claims that new DNA evidence clears Clarence Elkins of killing and raping his mother-in-law and brutally beating his niece. Lawyers for Elkins contend the DNA evidence proves another former Barberton resident, 32-year-old Earl Gene Mann , committed the crimes.

The city of Phoenix has agreed to pay $3 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who was twice wrongfully convicted of murder. Ray Krone was a postal worker when he was arrested in 1991 in the killing of Kim Ancona, a bartender who worked at a Phoenix lounge where Krone played darts. He was convicted in 1992, based largely on expert testimony that supposedly matched his teeth with bite marks found on the victim. In 2002, DNA testing proved Krone wasn't the killer. Instead, DNA from the crime scene was linked to a man already in prison for another crime. A trial for the new suspect is pending.

A proposal that would make crime labs in Wisconsin hurry up with DNA tests that could get prisoners off the hook is closer to reality. The state Assembly unanimously passed that bill. Police would also have to record juvenile interrogations. The bill comes after Steven Avery spent 18 years in prison for a rape some DNA later proved he didn't do. He was freed two years ago. The bill now goes to the Senate.

Luis Diaz last month became one of a handful of Florida prisoners, and one of 99 nationwide, exonerated by DNA testing since 2000. But the 2001 statute that helped set him free after he spent 26 years in jail for rapes he did not commit is set to expire.

After October 1, when prisoners can no longer petition Florida courts for post-conviction DNA testing, their only hope will be to ask prosecutors (the people who put them in jail in the first place) to reopen their case. Prisoners in Ohio face a similar deadline at the end of the month.

Worse still, the four-year window in Florida that required the preservation of evidence for older cases, which may have predated reliable DNA testing, is also closing.

And unlike California, which last year passed a law ensuring the preservation of evidence throughout an inmate's incarceration, Florida Governor Jeb Bush last month mandated that law-enforcement agencies need give only a 90-day notice before destroying evidence, which isn't much time given the low literacy rates among inmates and how hard prison protocol makes it for them to reach a lawyer.

Six states have yet to address the issue of requiring the preservation of DNA evidence.

And new hurdles could arise at the congressional level, where a bill threatens to restrict many prisoners from filing one last-ditch petition in federal court.

All these moves are designed to keep courts from getting deluged with DNA-related requests by thwarting new technology with red tape.

The Florida Supreme Court then extended the opportunity for Florida 's prison inmates to challenge their convictions through DNA testing until July 1.

Meanwhile, the court will consider whether to eliminate the deadline altogether, which the Florida Bar Association recommended in a petition filed last week.

Opposition to eliminating the deadline has dissolved in the last two years, primarily because of two ( Dedge and Diaz ) exonerations, which received widespread media coverage.

Nationwide, about 160 prison inmates have been exonerated by DNA testing.

At an even greater rate, DNA evidence is putting criminals behind bars. The number of convictions and answered prayers to victims and their families continue to grow.

Possibly due to the positive results to date, a bill is making its way through Congress that would expand the government's ability to use DNA data to solve crimes. A measure passed last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee would allow federal authorities to collect DNA samples anytime a person is arrested or detained. As the law is now written, such data may only be collected after a person is convicted.

Not surprisingly, the American Civil Liberties Union and others are crying foul on grounds the measure constitutes an egregious invasion of privacy. They say giving the government unfettered access to genetic information is an invitation for abuse, including profiling and dissemination of medical information that should be held in strict confidence.

S ponsors insist that adding DNA from people arrested or detained would lead to prevention of some crimes and help solve others more quickly. "When police retrace the history of a serial predator after he is finally caught, they often find that he never had a prior criminal conviction but did have a prior arrest." "That means the only way they are likely to catch such a perpetrator after his first crime — rather than his 10th — is if authorities can maintain a comprehensive database of all those who are arrested, just as they do with fingerprints."

DNA evidence led police to arrest Michael Sheppard, 54 , of Nashville . Sheppard is charged with rape, sodomy and robbery and is in the Wilson County jail in Lebanon , Tenn. , east of Nashville , Kentucky State Police said.

The Ernest Daniel Lewis , who raped a Gaithersburg woman in 1991 but remained unidentified for more than a decade until DNA evidence found him culpable will serve two life sentences in prison.

A man convicted of robbing a Monongahela store and beating a clerk with a gun was sentenced Tuesday in Washington County Court to 41/2 to 9 years in state prison. Pressley B. Lomax , 47, continued to insist he is innocent, even though a jury on June 10 found him guilty of robbery, theft, simple assault and terrorist threats. The conviction was based largely on DNA evidence.

The judge in the Dennis Dechaine murder case delivered a blow to the convicted man's campaign for freedom this week by issuing a ruling that narrowly limits the evidence he will allow Friday when a hearing begins on Dechaine's motion for a new trial. Bradford said Dechaine must first prove that DNA evidence excludes him as a source of the biological material tested. Then he must show that the evidence was not contaminated. In 1993, a lab hired by Dechaine found that blood scrapings from Cherry's thumbnails contained the DNA of an unknown male. The state crime lab confirmed the results last year.

In Deltona , Fla. a judge ruled Wednesday that DNA taken from Troy Victorino could be used. Victorino and three others are accused of beating six people to death last year. His lawyer argued that the evidence was taken from Victorino by force. He said police held his client down and forced his mouth open for a swab-sample. Investigators denied that. The trial is scheduled to begin in January.

Franklin Ross , 36, was arraigned Sept. 9 for allegedly breaking into the Jewel Gallery on Haggerty Road and stealing more than $30,000 in jewelry. Township police obtained a blood sample from a smashed glass door at the store and submitted it to the Michigan State Police. After four years under lock and key, police have matched the blood to a suspect. "Ross entered the prison system in 2004, and his DNA was matched to the sample taken from the Jewel Gallery break-in in 2001," said Detective Sgt. Matthew Mayes of the Northville Township Police Department in Michigan . "This match puts Ross at the crime scene."

Enid police detectives said they believe they have found a suspect for a rape case from 1998 reopened after DNA evidence from a rape in August in Chickasha matched DNA collected seven years ago.

SANTA ANA , Calif. A man awaiting retrial for the 1979 killing of a California girl has been indicted in the murders of four young women during the 1970s including an 18-year-old from central New York . Authorities say Alcala was connected to the other cases through DNA evidence. Although he allegedly killed the four women in Los Angeles County, 62-year-old Rodney Alcala will be tried in Orange County by prosecutors from both counties.

DeKALB - DNA evidence received this week was used to keep a man in jail on rape charges. Alberto Vasquez , 23, a transient, was in DeKalb County Jail on theft charges and about to be released Monday when DeKalb Police learned his DNA reportedly matched that taken from a woman who was raped last month.

WHITE PLAINS — A Yorktown woman's 17-year quest to learn the identity of her daughter's killer may finally be over. DNA testing has linked a California death row inmate to a pair of slayings in Virginia seven months apart in 1988, according to court documents, including the deaths of Yorktown native Rachael Raver and her boyfriend, Warren Fulton.

After approximately 45 minutes of deliberation Thursday, the jury came back to the Whitley County Circuit Court with a guilty verdict for Charles J. Hardin , 28, on charges of burglary causing bodily injury, a Class A felony, robbery causing serious bodily injury, a Class A felony, and aggravated battery, a Class B felony. Whitley County Prosecutor Matt Rentschler built his case around blood and DNA found in the right pocket of Hardin's jeans, matching a laceration on his swollen right hand the day of the attack. A mixture of both Hardin's and Debra Price's (the victim) DNA was found in the jeans' blood stain.

COLUMBUS , Ohio -- Jurors convicted a man Friday of kidnapping a 5-year-old girl, but acquitted him of a rape charge that could have brought a mandatory life sentence. The Franklin County jury deliberated for a week before finding Lindsey Bruce , 24, guilty of kidnapping. He faces three years to 10 years in prison at sentencing in November. A close match to Emily's DNA was found on Bruce's body.

The defense had argued that the match _ 1 in 26,000 people would have similar DNA _ wasn't close enough to convict.

A jury recommended yesterday that a former Chula Vista bus driver be executed for the abduction and murder of 9-year-old Laura Arroyo 14 years ago. DNA from semen that was captured on swabs taken from Laura's body was matched to Bracamontes' DNA.

Homicide detectives and laboratory technicians have uncovered DNA evidence in the slaying of two Napa women last year that points to the killer as a white man who smokes an unusual brand of cigarette, a police investigator said Friday.

Starr Mooren was found dead in her home Dec. 12, 1996. No arrests were made until August 2001, when detectives linked Tyquiengco to the crime scene through a DNA match. He is charged with murder during the commission of a rape and faces life in prison without parole if convicted.

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (AP) -- A man linked by DNA testing to a rape three years after it happened is sentenced to 15 years in prison. A judge announced the sentence at a hearing for Ivan Wheeler , 34, of Alton , Illinois , who was convicted of raping a woman in 2001.

Fairfax, Va. (AP) - Authorities say that preliminary DNA tests have linked a California death row inmate, Alfredo Prieto , to three 1988 slayings in northern Virginia.

MONROE, Mich. (AP) -- An area man has been charged in the 1990 slaying of a 25-year-old woman after police say a new DNA analysis linked him to the crime. Michael Charles Bates, 41, was arraigned and ordered held without bond on a charge of open murder in the death of Connie Renee Baker.

In addition to exonerations and convictions, DNA testing is widely used in Paternity cases.

More than four years after Amber Frey swore that a 29-year-old Fresno , Calif. , man fathered her first child, and she nailed him for child support, a DNA test says it isn't so.

Hairstylist Anthony Flores is off the hook for $175-a-month in kiddie maintenance after a genetic test showed a local nightclub owner is actually the 4-year-old girl's daddy.

MILWAUKIE, Ore. - Finding the man who raped a young girl and got her pregnant has come down to analyzing DNA evidence from her baby, but it is the kind of DNA testing that Oregon's crime lab does not do.

The key evidence to catch the man may cost taxpayers thousands of dollars more than it has to because Oregon's crime lab is not equipped to do the type of DNA testing needed - what is called a 'reverse paternity test.'

"This child (the one the young girl gave birth to) is a great source of evidence to hopefully be able to catch this man," said Detective Wendi Babst, spokeswoman for the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office.

Detectives have collected DNA from the infant and a reverse paternity test could help determine at least a basic DNA profile of the child's father.

Editor: Karen Daurie
Karen.Daurie@DNALabsInternational.com