Investigating CSI – Background material Table of Contents I ...
Investigating CSI – Background material Table of Contents I ...
Investigating CSI – Background material Table of Contents I ...
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The samples sat in the police evidence room, along with 2,300 other unexamined<br />
rape kits, for almost six years. To test them all would have swamped the state<br />
crime laboratory.<br />
So Detective Lori Gaglione and her colleagues in Milwaukee's Sensitive Crimes<br />
Unit narrowed down the 2,300 cases to 53 based on such factors as the<br />
availability <strong>of</strong> victims and witnesses.<br />
From the 53 samples that were tested, one case matched a convicted rapist in<br />
Minnesota. Another matched a convicted rapist elsewhere in Wisconsin, allowing<br />
charges to be filed only eight hours before the statute <strong>of</strong> limitations expired. And<br />
the three samples from 1993 matched each other. The other 47 remain in the<br />
national databank.<br />
The Wisconsin state law, as in other states, requires that a warrant identify the<br />
accused. If the name is not known, the law allows identification ''by any<br />
description by which the person to be arrested can be identified with reasonable<br />
certainty.''<br />
''My argument is going to be that genetic code goes well beyond reasonable<br />
certainty,'' said Mr. Gahn, who is a member <strong>of</strong> the Federal DNA Commission.<br />
''We're pushing the envelope as far as we can. It does something for the victim <strong>of</strong><br />
the sexual assault, to know that someone cares and to know that we're out there<br />
working on the case.''<br />
The forensic science supervisor in the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory, Dirk<br />
Janssen, said the probability <strong>of</strong> randomly selecting an unrelated individual who<br />
would have a DNA pr<strong>of</strong>ile matching the three samples would be about 1 in 7.25<br />
billion -- more than the world's population -- in the United States Caucasian<br />
population, and 1 in 1.96 billion in the African-American population.<br />
Such a John Doe warrant based on DNA evidence has been used at least one<br />
other time, in Kansas in 1991. No one was arrested, so the issue has not been<br />
tested.<br />
The warrant, which was signed by a judge last month, appeared to have merit,<br />
said Myrna Raeder, a pr<strong>of</strong>essor <strong>of</strong> law at Southwestern University in Los Angeles<br />
and the former head <strong>of</strong> the criminal section <strong>of</strong> the American Bar Association.<br />
''It's clearly novel and therefore courts are really going to have to struggle with<br />
the intention <strong>of</strong> the statute and whether the clear meaning <strong>of</strong> the statute would<br />
cover this,'' Pr<strong>of</strong>essor Raeder said.<br />
In Wisconsin, as in most states, only people convicted <strong>of</strong> sexual <strong>of</strong>fenses are<br />
required to give samples for DNA testing. The Legislature is close to expanding<br />
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