A New York court halted the use of a DNA crimefighting tool that has helped crack cold cases and put murderers behind bars, but has also raised privacy and racial discrimination concerns, because state lawmakers never approved the practice.
NEW YORK — A New York court halted the use of a DNA crimefighting tool that has helped crack cold cases and, but has also raised privacy and racial discrimination concerns, because state lawmakers never approved the practice.
Three of the panel’s five members voted to suspend the searches, which were challenged by a group of Black men who worried they could be targeted for investigation because their biological brothers were convicted of crimes and had genetic information stored in the state’s DNA databank. The ruling pertains only to the state’s DNA databank, which is populated with samples from people convicted of crimes in the state, not databanks that are maintained by private companies such as Ancestry and 23andMe for genetic genealogy research.by New York’s Division of Criminal Justice Services, part of the state’s executive branch, and the independent Commission on Forensic Science.
Authorities have, for decades, found suspects by matching crime scene evidence to convicted offenders’ DNA. Familial DNA testing comes into play when there’s no match. It looks instead for people similar enough to be closely related to whoever left the crime scene DNA. From there, investigators can look for family members who fit as suspects and, if they find one, pursue enough other evidence to bring charges.
The Legal Aid Society, a non-profit organization representing indigent defendants in New York City, sued the state February 2018, arguing that the Division of Criminal Justice Services had no authority to unilaterally expand use of the DNA databank.
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