Grim Sleeper Awakens Attention to Familial Searching of DNA Databases
Last week, the Los Angeles Police Department announced that it had captured a man suspected of being the “Grim Sleeper”: a serial killer linked with at least 10 murders over 25 years.1 The case marks the first time in the United States that a DNA search technique known as familial searching has led to an arrest in a homicide case.
As we’ve previously discussed, a partial match between two DNA profiles may indicate that the donors of the corresponding samples may be related. In familial searching, a database is searched for the purpose of identifying partial, rather than exact, matches against the sample of unknown origin. Those partial matches are then used as investigatory leads.
Though familial searching has been used with some success in other countries, few states openly endorse its practice. Those states that permit the use of partial matches at all generally prohibit the intentional search for those matches, requiring instead that they be discovered inadvertently. California began using familial searching in 2008 in a first attempt to identify the Grim Sleeper. At the time, the failure to produce a suspect was seen as a strike against the technique: if familial searching could implicate privacy concerns and subject innocent individuals to excessive genetic surveillance, it certainly could not be justified without being able to point to positive results.2 Since then, one DNA profile of particular interest was added to California’s database: that belonging to the son of the man now identified as the Grim Sleeper.
The Unintended Consequences of Katie’s Law: More DNA Samples Collected, More DNA Samples Untested?
Last month, we discussed a bill nicknamed “Katie’s Law” that would give states financial incentives to collect DNA samples from individuals arrested for certain crimes. At the moment, less than half of the states currently collect DNA samples from these arrestees. If Katie’s Law were enacted, the remainder of the states would likely expand the scope of their DNA collection practices, greatly increasing the number of samples collected.
But once DNA samples are collected, when are they actually analyzed? As discussed by Christopher Heaney and Sara Huston Katsanis in The Contra Costra Times, many states currently have considerable backlogs in testing DNA samples, including those collected from convicts, arrestees and victims. Katie’s Law, by increasing the number of samples that require analysis, is likely to exacerbate these backlogs. Worse yet, Heaney and Katsanis point out that other federal funding awards are determined by the size of a state’s backlog—the larger the backlog, the more funds the state can receive. While the intent of Katie’s Law is to expedite the delivery of justice, there is concern that its practical effect may indeed be just the opposite.
Keeping Up With CODIS and Katie’s Law
A few weeks back, we posted a discussion of the issues surrounding the current system of forensic DNA profiling, with an emphasis on the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). In that post, we noted that the federal government had enacted a policy of taking DNA samples from individuals arrested for certain crimes and retaining the samples in CODIS. To date, 23 states have enacted similar laws, and the federal government may soon give the other 27 states incentives to follow suit.
On May 18, the House of Representatives passed the Katie Sepich Enhanced DNA Collection Act of 2010, informally known as Katie’s Law.1 Under the bill, those states that collect DNA from individuals arrested for certain serious crimes (murder, voluntary manslaughter, serious sexual offenses or serious kidnapping offenses) and compare the samples to those in the CODIS database at least once receive a 5% bonus on certain federal crime prevention grants.2 States that also collect samples from individuals arrested for less serious crimes and submit all profiles collected from arrestees for inclusion in CODIS would instead receive a 10% bonus. The bill is now with the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
The Cost of Making Crime Not Pay: Obama, CODIS and Forensic DNA
Earlier this month President Barack Obama appeared on the television show “America’s Most Wanted” to discuss the creation of a national forensic DNA database. In his interview with AMW host John Walsh, President Obama expressed his strong support for a number of law enforcement initiatives, including a proposal to expand the compulsory DNA sampling of individuals arrested and charged with certain crimes.
In this post we’ll take a look at the current system of forensic DNA profiling, starting with the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), which is the FBI program that oversees DNA profile databanking in the United States. It comprises databases at the local, state and national levels, with the National DNA Index System (NDIS) the crown jewel. The CODIS program operates as a powerful law enforcement tool but, in the eyes of some – including President Obama – it is not yet powerful enough. But even the existing CODIS collection, with its nearly eight million DNA profiles, poses a number of interesting ethical, legal and social issues.
