‘It smells of Big Brother’: Some question legality, effectiveness of Louisiana’s expansive DNA database
By Bryn Stole & Danielle Maddox Kinchen,
The New Orleans Advocate
| 02. 13. 2016
Untitled Document
A dozen years ago, just after Derrick Todd Lee was arrested and tied to a string of killings in south Louisiana, the state counted 12,000 DNA profiles in its database designed to help solve crimes.
Now, it has about 40 times as many.
When Lee died last month while still awaiting execution, authorities were quick to say lessons learned during the hunt for the serial killer helped create what is now one of the nation’s most expansive DNA databases, containing samples taken from anyone — including juveniles — arrested on a felony or a slew of misdemeanors.
Law enforcement officials and legislators say this large database provides a powerful tool for detectives, offering fresh leads on otherwise cold cases and helping link unknown suspects to unsolved crimes. But many civil libertarians worry the program has gone too far, harvesting DNA from potentially innocent people — those arrested but not yet convicted — in a manner that oversteps constitutional boundaries.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that the state’s DNA policies have their roots in the Lee case. In...
Related Articles
By Neel Shah, The Preprint | 04.11.2024
Years ago, I interviewed for a residency position at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Standing before the domed Victorian building at the campus entrance, I couldn’t help but be in awe of the history of the place, the great...
By Sabrina Souza and Zoe Sottile, CNN | 04.01.2024
Michigan has become the last state to decriminalize paid surrogacy on Monday, after Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a package of bills intended to protect families using surrogacy and in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Whitmer signed the Michigan Family Protection Act...
By Emily Cochrane, The New York Times | 04.03.2024
A Mobile, Ala., hospital at the center of a State Supreme Court ruling that found that frozen embryos could be considered children said on Wednesday that it would no longer provide in vitro fertilization lab services after this year.
In...
By Todd Feathers, The Guardian | 03.25.2024
For the last several months, a city at the heart of Silicon Valley has been training artificial intelligence to recognize tents and cars with people living inside in what experts believe is the first experiment of its kind in the...