Latest version of law to create DNA database criticised for having provisions that violate human rights of innocent persons WHILE the latest version of a law to create a DNA database has been welcomed as an improvement on the 2009 version, it has been criticised for having provisions that v... [More]

Authors usually like it when the Supreme Court cites their work. But a reference to a book in an opinion last week is drawing mixed reviews. The case, Maryland v. King, was about whether the authorities may take DNA samples from people arrested in connection with serious crimes. Justice Anth... [More]

The US Supreme Court’s ruling upholding Maryland’s law allowing law enforcement to collect DNA upon arrest and prior to conviction fails to protect the privacy of Americans’ DNA and is a serious blow to human rights in the United States. In Maryland v King the Court has no... [More]

The Forensic Genetics Policy Initiative (FGPI) is a global human rights project, chaired by the Council for Responsible Genetics, GeneWatch UK and Privacy International, which is dedicated to ensuring that the expansion of DNA databases is consistent with human rights principles. ... [More]

DNA so dangerous that it doesn't exist in nature has been given its first useful role – keeping innocent people out of jail. Several sequences of DNA not found in nature – probably because they are incompatible with life – were identified in 2007. Now it seems these so-calle... [More]

An Oklahoma man who was arrested and jailed for allegedly raping a 4-year-old girl intends to sue authorities for holding for three months while he pleaded with them to perform a DNA test, which eventually cleared him.   Tommy Braden, 26, of Sapulpa, Okla., was arrested in April 2012 af... [More]

On February 26, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Maryland v. King, which presents the question of whether the Fourth Amendment permits the warrantless collection of DNA from people arrested for, but not convicted of, a crime. Currently, twenty-eight states and federal law enforcement co... [More]

  March 13, 2013       Senator Tick Segerblom - Chair   Senator Ruben J. Kihuen - Vice Chair Nevada Senate Judiciary Committee 401 S. Carson Street, Room 2121Carson City, NV 89701-4747   RE: SB 243   Dear Senators,   We are very concerned a... [More]

Sixty years ago, scientists first discovered DNA, the structure in which a person’s genes are encoded. Since then, our knowledge of the genome has revolutionized medicine. But when it comes to the U.S. legal system, important questions about what a gene is remain unsolved. Here's one questi... [More]

The Supreme Court justices sounded closely split Tuesday on what one of them called the most important criminal procedure case in decades, a challenge to whether police may routinely take DNA samples from suspects and put the results in a national database.   "Why isn't this the fingerp... [More]