Investigating CSI – Background material Table of Contents I ...

A RAPE DEFENDANT WITH NO IDENTITY, BUT A DNA PROFILE
October 7, 1999 –
New York Times
By BILL DEDMAN
In an unusual legal strategy that stretches the law to match the developing
science of DNA, a prosecutor in Wisconsin has filed rape and kidnapping
charges against a defendant who has no name. John Doe is known only by his
DNA code, extracted from semen samples from three rapes and tested after six
years in a police property room.
''We know that one person raped these three women,'' said the prosecutor,
Norman Gahn, assistant district attorney for Milwaukee County. ''We just don't
know who that person is. We will catch him.''
The prosecutor's strategy is an effort to keep the six-year time limit for bringing
charges from running out. A warrant must identify a person to be arrested, and
this one names ''John Doe, unknown male with matching deoxyribonucleic acid
profile.'' Every month, an F.B.I. computer will compare the description of John
Doe's DNA with thousands of new genetic samples from around the country.
''John Doe'' is typically used in a warrant when the accused is known by an alias
or by a physical description. The Milwaukee case is unusual in that it describes
the suspect by only DNA information.
The case raises several questions about the gaps between science and law. Can
a person be identified on a warrant by only a DNA code, or is a more traditional
identification required, like a name or a physical description? Is the legal concept
of a statute of limitations relevant in an age of DNA testing? Legal experts said
the case had merit but would be challenged.
The case also reveals the promise and limitations of the national DNA databank,
one year old this month, which, much like a national fingerprint databank, was
intended to allow investigators to share in the DNA information collected by state
and municipal law-enforcement agencies.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation says the databank had helped solve 583
cases, including one involving a serial rapist in Washington, D.C., who turned out
to also be a serial rapist in Florida. Police routinely collect DNA evidence not only
in rape cases but also from saliva on beer cans left by a burglar, from sweat on a
baseball bat used in a beating and from blood on a bullet that passed through a
suspect.
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