Page 9 - Dna Database News Today

Golden state killer case. investigators say they plan to test dna evidence to link murders. the 72-year-old former cop is suspected in at least 50 rapes and 12 murders in the 70s and 80s in california. police comparing evidence with genetic information posted to an online ancestry website. that move is pasparking new privacy concerns. here to discuss, heather hanson, morgan wright. so when i first heard, morgan, that this case was solved through an online dna database, i thought when a dumb crim...

You came before this committee in december of 2015 and i asked you then about this legislation and you said it would quote help us change the world in a very, very exciting way, unquote. is that still your view of the value of this legislation? and do you believe that congress should enact it on its own without getting tangled up in other criminal justice reform issues? >> i agree that rapid dna will enhance the safety of the american people. if a police officer somewhere in the united states ha...

Mr. director, you came before this committee in december 2015 and i asked you then about this legislation, you said it would, quote, help us change the world in a very, very exciting way, unquote. is that still your view of the value of this legislation and do you believe that congress should enact on its own without other justice reform issues. >> i do believe that rapid dna will help the american people so if a plaintiff somewhere in the united states has in his or her custody someone who is a...

This committee in december 2015 and i asked you then about this legislation. you said it would, help, quote us change the world in a very, very exciting way. end quote. is that still your view of the value of this legislation, and do you believe that congress should enact it on its own without getting tangled up in other criminal justice reform issues? >> i agree, senator hatch. the rapid dna will advance the safety of the united states. so if a police officer somewhere in the united states has ...

All. theyre very ambiguous and may or may not have value as evidence in terms of figuring out who killed that little girl. >> are the experts optimistic this modern technology is going to be able to help them considerably? >> what they believe is the modern technology that could be used could separate out the male dna because the dna on these clothing garments is a mixture of at least three peoples genetic material. if they could separate out the male dna and look at that carefully, they could d...

Who brutalized her. she couldnt know that the real rapist was still on the loose. >> thats always been a hope of mine too. besides being exonerated was, you know, to completely convince everybody that i didnt do this, whether they believe in dna or not was to find the real perpetrator and convict him. >> for that, eddie lowery will have to wait six years. in may 2009 the fbis dna database of convicted offenders turns up a cold hit. the rape evidence matches daniel brewer, a 53-year-old man livin...

A dna sample was obtained from phillips bone marrow. it did not match the dna from the crime scene. >> i called and spoke with susans mother, and she was very disappointed. but you know, i tried to assure her that we would continue to go forward and try to identify the suspect. >> i was angry at the time, because i felt we had closure, it was done with. >> and there was more bad news. the dna did not match anyone in the statewide database of known criminal offenders. if the killer wasnt phillips...

That the lieutenant interrupted. they could be from chicago or milwaukee. that whole region needs to be on alert to look for somebody who might have had three guys like this, might have had a lot of money, out late at night. think of the time of day it is, ten minutes to 8:00 a.m. in the morning. they are coming out of the woods or around that cement plant, what are they doing there at that hour? they are doing something criminal, they are scouting it and hiding something there. and they ran whe...

>> a gruesome question, but is there a chance this that in these older cases would they exhume these bodies and look at them again? >> its possible if the police didnt take adequate samples you might have to exhume the body. what youll find the hair or skeletal remains or teeth and those all have denay very important information. but if you left see men behind, it wont be there for much time and we cant take advantage of that. >> thank goodness for the dna database, right? >> absolutely. >> an a...

And from the victim herself. and they will compare facts and evidence in their cases and we will be entering the case into a national data base which tries to connect the dots on cases like this where there may be a serial killer involved. as well as a dna database that linked sexual assaults and murders in another data base. >> lieutenant steve cooper thank you so much. >> coming up a spellman grad speaks out after the predominantly black womens college dropped bill cosbys big endowment. that s...