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Please see our “Did You Know?” section toward the end of this issue. Making headlines are two new rules from the Department of Justice. One of them affects how immigrants are represented in the courts and the other allows the government to take DNA samples from detained immigrants. “Justice Officials have estimated the new collecting requirements would add DNA from an additional 1.2 million people to a federal database each year.” In addition to this story you will find brief summaries of new and ongoing cases involving the use of DNA analysis. Every story is followed by a link to its original source, which you can follow for more details. In The NewsImmigrant advocates decry new rules on courts, DNAImmigrant rights advocates are outraged over two rules from the Department of Justice this week: one affecting how immigrants are represented in the courts and another that lets the government sample detained immigrants' DNA. In a decision dated Wednesday, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said immigrants facing deportation do not have an automatic right to an effective lawyer and can't get their cases reopened just because of shoddy work by an attorney. On Friday, a new Justice Department rule takes effect that directs federal agencies to collect DNA samples from foreigners detained by U.S. authorities. Justice officials have estimated the new collecting requirements would add DNA from an additional 1.2 million people to a federal database each year. The American Civil Liberties Union and immigration lawyers' groups have opposed both rules and note Mukasey's decision comes less than two weeks before the Bush administration leaves office. The government's new rule on DNA, while proposed last year, also takes effect before President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in Jan. 20. Source: www.mercurynews.com
New and Ongoing Stories Involving the Use of DNA EvidencePennsylvania - A North Carolina man has been arrested in connection with the beating death and robbery of a Pennsylvania adult video store clerk more than 16 years ago — thanks in part to DNA evidence found on a cigarette. Steven Carl Buttolph was arrested Thursday in Statesville, N.C., and charged with the May 1992 killing of Donald V. Gosline. Source: www.google.com California - Los Angeles police detectives said Monday they had made an arrest in the nearly two-decades-old rape and murder of an 82-year-old woman, thanks to new DNA evidence. This physical evidence revealed a DNA profile that was eventually entered into a Department of Justice database. On Jan. 5, a DNA "cold hit" was made on Isidro Ponce, authorities said. Iowa - Investigators tested DNA from a slice of pizza and a cigarette butt left at the scene of a burglary and think they've found their suspect. New York - A man who was wrongly imprisoned for more than 19 years was fully exonerated Friday when prosecutors formally dismissed murder and rape charges against him. Source: www.newsday.com Arkansas - A Marianna, Ark. man accused of killing Little Rock television anchorwoman Anne Pressly faces capital murder and rape charges in the slaying. Curtis Lavelle Vance, 28, also has been charged with residential burglary and theft in the Oct. 20 attack on Pressly at her home. Charging documents list 68 potential prosecution witnesses against Vance, including police detectives, DNA experts from the state crime laboratory and Pressly's co-workers at Little Rock ABC affiliate KATV. Source: www.foxnews.com Wisconsin - DNA evidence has helped free a man who was serving a life prison term for the murder of a teenage girl in Milwaukee in 1995. Source: www.chicagotribune.com Texas - Curtis Don Brown, 46, is serving a life sentence for the 1986 murder of Jewel Woods, a 51-year-old Fort Worth nurse. Brown, who was transported to Fort Worth on Tuesday, now faces a capital murder charge in Gregory’s death. Since linking Brown to Gregory through the DNA database in February, investigators have re-examined 25 unsolved slayings of women that occurred while Brown lived in Tarrant County. At least 18 deserve a closer look, they say. Source: www.star-telegram.com Washington - A transient who raped two women near Seattle's waterfront in the summer of 2007 pleaded guilty today to two counts of first-degree rape. Angel Galvan-Hernandez, 26, was arrested on Aug. 11, 2007, after a man walking through Myrtle Edwards Park saw Galvan-Hernandez raping a woman and intervened. The witness held Hernandez until Seattle police arrived. Police and staff at Harborview Medical Center quickly linked the attack with another rape near the park five days earlier. Both women had been beaten over the head with a rock, had clumps of their hair yanked out and were bitten by their attacker. The cases were linked through DNA. Source: seattletimes.nwsource.com Washington - A man convicted of raping an 11-year-old girl at knifepoint in her bedroom two years ago will spend at least 60 years in prison. Peter Jacob Inouye, 26, was found guilty of three counts of first-degree rape while armed with a deadly weapon, one count of first-degree burglary while armed with a deadly weapon with sexual motivation, and one count of second-degree assault of a child while armed with a deadly weapon with sexual motivation. Inouye was initially identified as a person of interest after detectives learned he had been at the victim's home for an event to help the girl’s family after her father died. Police were later able to confirm Inouye was their man using a DNA test of his saliva. Inouye had spat in the street near his parents' home. Another man was initially arrested for the rape, but he was cleared by DNA evidence. Source: www.msnbc.msn.com Louisiana - DNA evidence links the rapes of two elderly Shreveport women in 2008, putting a man back in jail just before midnight Monday, authorities say. Billy Ray Washington, 48, is charged with two counts of aggravated rape and one count of failing to register as a sex offender. Source: www.shreveporttimes.com Florida - A Georgia man is back in Florida to face murder charges, 21 years after the crime was committed. Police say DNA technology linked Tony Fantauzzi to the rape and murder of 19-year-old Lisa Bickford. Bickford was found dead after she left a bar back in 1987. Source: www.myfoxtampabay.com California - A local woman raped, beaten and left for dead ... will likely get justice this New Year ... thanks to some scientific evidence. Since the suspect was already going to prison, the court ordered him to provide a DNA sample. He was serving time for possession of rock cocaine when his DNA was tied to a far more brutal crime last year. Investigators say just before the New Year, 30 year old Jose Malanche admitted to the crime during an interview inside the Fresno County Jail. Officers confronted him with the DNA evidence that tied him to the crime. Source: abclocal.go.com California - A Mexican national who was deported 10 times was charged with 11 felony counts on Wednesday. Source: www.msnbc.msn.com Oklahoma - Police arrested a man Monday evening in connection with the sexual assault of a woman who was attacked by an intruder while she was sleeping in her apartment more than two years ago. "We obtained DNA from him, and a subsequent lab analysis of DNA obtained from the carpet of the victim's residence matched his DNA," he said. Kentucky - An accused rapist is due in court this week to face charges in a case that dates back to October 1994. John Mann is the second suspect accused of raping a 21-year-old woman 14 years ago. Investigators say DNA evidence helped link Mann to the crime. Source: www.kypost.com
Did You Know?
How DNA Is Unwound So That Its Code Can Be Read Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute have figured out how a macromolecular machine is able to unwind the long and twisted tangles of DNA within a cell's nucleus so that genetic information can be "read" and used to direct the synthesis of proteins, which have many specific functions in the body. The scientists say that their findings, published in the November 23, 2008 online issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, provide important new insights into this critical DNA unwinding. "This is a fundamental processes that takes place countless times inside each of our cells every day, but how it happens had not been understood." says the study's lead investigator, Francisco Asturias, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Cell Biology at Scripps Research. "The structure we have solved provides important clues into one of the first steps in gene expression regulation." For more information please go to: Source: www.sciencedaily.com
The DNA Informant is a free bi-weekly email newsletter, published by DNA Labs International. DNA Labs International is a private, ISO 17025 Accredited, Forensic Serology and DNA Identity Testing Laboratory, founded in 2004 by a Board Certified Fellow in Molecular Biology with over two decades of experience in Forensic Serology and DNA Analysis in United States Crime Labs. Our primary mission is to help our clients identify criminals within their jurisdiction by providing timely, accurate and cost effective DNA testing results. To do this we created an organization based on industry best practices from over 20 State Crime Labs around the United States. We are located in Deerfield Beach, Florida, just minutes from the Fort Lauderdale airport.
DNA Labs International’s services are now available for individual cases and outsourcing contracts. Please keep us in mind as you start to consider your outsourcing needs, regular and rush cases and DNA case review. Editor: Karen Daurie |
