Success Of DNA A Boost For Police
As Database Grows, So Will Convictions

By TRACY GORDON FOX, Courant Staff Writer

Even veteran criminalist Michael Bourke was surprised.

Recently, he was matching forensic evidence taken from crime scenes against the DNA profiles of convicted felons and got 12 hits in one day at the Connecticut State Police Laboratory. That could eventually translate to police and prosecutors closing 12 cases of rape and burglary.

"The last 2½ years, we went from a hit once every few months to one a week," said Bourke, lead criminalist for the DNA unit.

But those numbers will continue to rise as the DNA of more and more convicted felons is added to the convicted offender database at the laboratory. A state law that went into effect in 2004 ordered the collection of the genetic material of every convicted felon.

"The intent behind the law is to let any felon who has committed another crime know that when any DNA is left at a scene, [it's] going to be checked against this database," said Andrew Crumbie, chief of staff for Public Safety Commissioner Leonard C. Boyle. "If you're a felon and have gotten caught and convicted, chances are you're going to get caught for any past or future crimes."

Forensic expert Henry C. Lee, who helped build the Connecticut forensic laboratory, is scheduled to hold a news conference Monday, announcing some of the successes - including specific cases - since the law was passed in 2004.

He is expected to have with him a letter of thanks from a rape victim, whose attacker was caught and convicted because of a DNA match at the state police lab.

The lab receives about 1,500 DNA samples a month and about 250 of them have been matched to known felons. By the end of this year, there will be 3 million searchable DNA profiles of convicted felons. Connecticut samples can also be checked against known felons from all other states, he said.

In the past six months, there have been more than 50 matches. It used to take about five years to find 25 matches, Bourke said. "And that will continue to increase as we work our way through the large number of cases we have."

Robotic machines, purchased with federal grant money, help scientists separate the DNA and test it, as many as 100 samples a day, Bourke said. Much of the backlog from older cases is being handled by a private laboratory, and findings are rechecked in the Connecticut lab.

But the database does more than identify the guilty. It also protects the innocent, Lee said.

In one case, a man was chosen in a photo lineup, and arrested in a rape case. The database information showed it was not his DNA that was taken from the scene. The real rapist was eventually arrested, he said.

In 2002 and 2003, the state forensic laboratory received a federal grant to help forensic scientists revisit cases where there is DNA evidence, but no identified suspect.

Lee said some administrative problems at the laboratory involving another DNA program had nothing to do with the work performed every day by the scientists there.

"They are doing good work, excellent work," he said.