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posted by mrpg on Wednesday July 18 2018, @03:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the gotta-attac dept.

Murder suspect due in U.S. court after DNA cracks open 1988 case

A 59-year-old Indiana man will be formally charged on Thursday with the 1988 murder of an eight-year-old girl after the decades-old cold case was cracked open by DNA evidence linked to a genealogical website, authorities said on Tuesday.

John Miller of Grabill, Indiana, was arrested in nearby Fort Wayne on Sunday after DNA evidence and records on publicly accessible genealogical websites helped investigators track him down. Investigators followed a pattern similar to that used to track down the "Golden State Killer" in California earlier this year.

Miller on Monday was preliminarily charged with murder, child molestation and confinement of someone under 14 years old, 30 years after eight-year-old April Tinsley was found dead in a ditch. He has been ordered held without bond.

If you don't hand over your DNA, you want child murderers to frolic in freedom.

Related: DNA From Genealogy Site Led to Capture of Golden State Killer Suspect
GEDmatch: "What If It Was Called Police Genealogy?"
DNA Collected from Golden State Killer Suspect's Car, Leading to Arrest
Another Alleged Murderer Shaken Out of the Family Tree
'Martyr of the A10': DNA Leads to France Arrests Over 1987 Murder
DNA Methylation Can Reveal Information About Criminal Suspects


Original Submission

Related Stories

DNA From Genealogy Site Led to Capture of Golden State Killer Suspect 47 comments

The Orange County Register reports:

[...] one of California's most prolific serial killers and rapists was caught by using online genealogical sites to find a DNA match, prosecutors said Thursday. Investigators compared the DNA collected from a crime scene of the Golden State Killer to online genetic profiles and found a match: a relative of the man police have identified as [the suspect, who was arrested.]

[...] Authorities didn't give the name of the site, one of many, like Ancestry and 23andMe, that allow people to send in their DNA and find long-lost relatives. [...] Contacted Friday, representatives of both Ancestry and 23andMe.com said the sites weren't involved in the case.

DNA Collected from Golden State Killer Suspect's Car, Leading to Arrest 19 comments

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/06/02/us/golden-state-killer-unsealed-warrants/index.html

When the suspected Golden State Killer drove into a Hobby Lobby parking lot in April, investigators were waiting nearby. As he walked into the craft store, it gave them a perfect chance to collect a secret DNA sample.

Police swabbed the driver's side handle of [the suspect's] car, according to arrest and search warrants released Friday.

Authorities sent it for testing and matched it to semen recovered at some of the Golden State Killer's crime scenes, the arrest warrant said.

[...] The stop at the Hobby Lobby was just one of several ways investigators used to zero in on a suspect. Earlier this year, police tracked him down by comparing genetic profiles from genealogy websites to crime scene DNA, according to investigators.

On April 23, a day before his arrest, police say they collected multiple samples from a trash can outside DeAngelo's home in Citrus Heights, a town 16 miles northeast of Sacramento. They had watched the home for three days, the warrant said.

Previously: DNA From Genealogy Site Led to Capture of Golden State Killer Suspect
GEDmatch: "What If It Was Called Police Genealogy?"


Original Submission

Another Alleged Murderer Shaken Out of the Family Tree 23 comments

The Associated Press and the Everett Washington HeraldNet carry a story about a 30 year old double murder solved using Public Genealogy Sites similar to the Golden State Killer story carried here on SoylentNews.

Deaths of two Canadian visitors shopping in the Seattle area were unsolved since 1987.

The deaths remained a mystery for more than 30 years, until DNA led to a major breakthrough. A genealogist, CeCe Moore, worked with experts at Parabon NanoLabs to build a family tree for the suspect, based on the genetic evidence recovered from the crime scenes. They used data that had been uploaded by distant cousins to public genealogy websites. They pinpointed a suspect, Talbott, a trucker living north of Sea-Tac International Airport.

Police kept him under surveillance until a paper cup fell from his truck in Seattle in early May. A swab of DNA from the cup came back as a match to the evidence that had waited 30 years. Before then, Talbott had never been considered a suspect. Days later he was in handcuffs.

This time the police used Parabon NanoLabs (more well-known for generating facial models from mere samples of DNA) to build a family tree of the killer by submitting the 30 year old crime scene DNA samples to multiple genealogy sites.

Results from those sites were combined by a Parabon genealogist to map the family of distant cousins found in those data bases. Police were then able to narrow down the list using other methods unmentioned.

Neither article mentions if any family members were stalked by police while being eliminated as suspects, or whether any samples were submitted by other family members.


Original Submission

'Martyr of the A10': DNA Leads to France Arrests Over 1987 Murder 13 comments

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

'Martyr of the A10': DNA leads to France arrests over 1987 murder

French police have arrested a couple 31 years after their daughter was found dead, in a cold case revived through DNA evidence. The mutilated body of the child, named by police as Inass, was found by a motorway in central France in 1987. The parents were traced after the DNA of their son, tested in an unrelated case, was matched with that of the girl, French media report.

[...] In 2008, her DNA was formally identified, and the related information registered in a national genetic prints database. However no identification was made at that stage. The case was reopened in 2012 when a call for witnesses was released with a picture of the dead girl's face and the caption: "Who is she?"

The apparent breakthrough in the case happened when a man was arrested over a violent incident in 2016. His DNA reportedly identified him as the victim's brother. Months of investigation then led police to the parents.

Related: DNA From Genealogy Site Led to Capture of Golden State Killer Suspect
GEDmatch: "What If It Was Called Police Genealogy?"
DNA Collected from Golden State Killer Suspect's Car, Leading to Arrest
Another Alleged Murderer Shaken Out of the Family Tree


Original Submission

DNA Methylation Can Reveal Information About Criminal Suspects 6 comments

Crime scene DNA could be used to reveal a suspect's age—and whether they have cancer

A drop of blood left by a suspect at a crime scene is a treasure trove for forensic scientists. Genetic information extracted from such biological samples can be compared against DNA databases to see whether a sample's DNA sequence is a match for any known offenders, for example. To protect individuals' privacy, these analyses, known as DNA fingerprinting, are normally restricted to parts of the genome not involved in creating proteins. But in some countries, investigators hoping to narrow down their pool of suspects are allowed to identify certain protein-coding sequences that can help predict skin or eye color. And soon, scientists may be able to find out even more from an offender's DNA—including their age.

A new forensic approach analyzes the chemical tags attached to DNA, rather than genetic sequences themselves. These molecules, which can switch genes on and off, get added onto DNA throughout our life span in a process called DNA methylation. And because the patterns of DNA methylation change as we age, they could provide a good indication of how old a suspect is.

But this technique could inadvertently reveal a lot more about a suspect's health and lifestyle [DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2018.03.006] [DX], raising tricky legal and ethical questions that may demand new privacy safeguards, scientists suggest in a commentary in the July issue of Trends in Genetics.

A brief interview with two of the authors is included in TFA.

Related: Better DNA Hair Analysis for Catching Criminals
Creating Wanted Posters from DNA Samples
The Problems With DNA Evidence
Study Predicts Appearance From Genome Sequence Data
GEDmatch: "What If It Was Called Police Genealogy?"
DNA Collected from Golden State Killer Suspect's Car, Leading to Arrest


Original Submission

Public Ancestry Data Can be Used to Narrow Down the Identity Behind an Anonymous DNA Sample 22 comments

We will find you: DNA search used to nab Golden State Killer can home in on about 60% of white Americans

If you're white, live in the United States, and a distant relative has uploaded their DNA to a public ancestry database, there's a good chance an internet sleuth can identify you from a DNA sample you left somewhere. That's the conclusion of a new study, which finds that by combining an anonymous DNA sample with some basic information such as someone's rough age, researchers could narrow that person's identity to fewer than 20 people by starting with a DNA database of 1.3 million individuals.

Such a search could potentially allow the identification of about 60% of white Americans from a DNA sample—even if they have never provided their own DNA to an ancestry database. "In a few years, it's really going to be everyone," says study leader Yaniv Erlich, a computational geneticist at Columbia University.

The study was sparked by the April arrest of the alleged "Golden State Killer," a California man accused of a series of decades-old rapes and murders. To find him—and more than a dozen other criminal suspects since then—law enforcement agencies first test a crime scene DNA sample, which could be old blood, hair, or semen, for hundreds of thousands of DNA markers—signposts along the genome that vary among people, but whose identity in many cases are shared with blood relatives. They then upload the DNA data to GEDmatch, a free online database where anyone can share their data from consumer DNA testing companies such as 23andMe and Ancestry.com to search for relatives who have submitted their DNA. Searching GEDMatch's nearly 1 million profiles revealed several relatives who were the equivalent to third cousins to the crime scene DNA linked to the Golden State Killer. Other information such as genealogical records, approximate age, and crime locations then allowed the sleuths to home in on a single person.

Even if you can convince your entire immediate family to not use these services, you could still be vulnerable. And the success rate is likely to climb over time for all racial groups. Maybe the tests could be subsidized to get more of the population to give up the goods.

Also at LA Times

Related: DNA From Genealogy Site Led to Capture of Golden State Killer Suspect
GEDmatch: "What If It Was Called Police Genealogy?"
DNA Collected from Golden State Killer Suspect's Car, Leading to Arrest
Another Alleged Murderer Shaken Out of the Family Tree
'Martyr of the A10': DNA Leads to France Arrests Over 1987 Murder
Indiana Murder Suspect Found by Using Genealogical Website


Original Submission

Politics: DNA Databases in the U.S. and China are Tools of Racial Oppression 166 comments

DNA Databases in the U.S. and China Are Tools of Racial Oppression

Two major world powers, the United States and China, have both collected an enormous number of DNA samples from their citizens, the premise being that these samples will help solve crimes that might have otherwise gone unsolved. While DNA evidence can often be crucial when it comes to determining who committed a crime, researchers argue these DNA databases also pose a major threat to human rights.

In the U.S., the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has a DNA database called the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) that currently contains over 14 million DNA profiles. This database has a disproportionately high number of profiles of black men, because black Americans are arrested five times as much as white Americans. You don't even have to be convicted of a crime for law enforcement to take and store your DNA; you simply have to have been arrested as a suspect.

[...] As for China, a report that was published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in mid-June claims that China is operating the "world's largest police-run DNA database" as part of its powerful surveillance state. Chinese authorities have collected DNA samples from possibly as many as 70 million men since 2017, and the total database is believed to contain as many as 140 million profiles. The country hopes to collect DNA from all of its male citizens, as it argues men are most likely to commit crimes.

DNA is reportedly often collected during what are represented as free physicals, and it's also being collected from children at schools. There are reports of Chinese citizens being threatened with punishment by government officials if they refuse to give a DNA sample. Much of the DNA that's been collected has been from Uighur Muslims that have been oppressed by the Chinese government and infamously forced into concentration camps in the Xinjiang province.

Related:


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Revek on Wednesday July 18 2018, @03:45PM (33 children)

    by Revek (5022) on Wednesday July 18 2018, @03:45PM (#708829)

    If you don't hand over your DNA, you want child murderers to frolic in freedom.

    Yeah, that is what it means to not want to hand over my DNA.

    --
    This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday July 18 2018, @03:58PM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 18 2018, @03:58PM (#708835) Journal

      Price of freedom is the probability of crime

        ---  Dan Geer [stanford.edu] (see page 32) (PDF warning)

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:03PM (6 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:03PM (#708841) Journal

      <sarcasm> But, Citizen! DNA samples can only be used for good! Insurance companies won't raise your rates because you have and/or carry hereditary diseases. And, no one can ever, ever, EVER "plant" your DNA at a crime scene. $ethnicity haters can't find out that you are $ethnicity from your DNA. And, people who judge people guilty by association will never find out that your *parent was a murderer, child molester, traitor, or whatever else will learn who your daddy is. </sarcasm>

      Unfortunately, this is the way the world is going. Eventually, those DNA samples will be taken from the newborn baby, and kept on file forever and ever. Classified and categorized, analyzed, and plugged into the system, long before Baby is ready to join the system.

      "Oh, Becky can't take advanced academic classes, because her DNA indicates that she isn't smart enough to pass those kind of classes."
      "John cannot go into medicine, because" whatever. Cindy will be pushed INTO medicine because HER DNA indicates that she will excel.

      And, most of the rank and file will be deemed to be worth little more than cannon fodder.

      You life will be mapped out according to some algorithms, based on your DNA. How wonderful - NOT!

      --
      “I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:13PM

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:13PM (#708849) Journal

        A GATTACA dystopia is one way for the 1% to bring the population down to 500 million.

        Oh, wait. Those invalid breeders will keep breeding.

        --
        Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @06:09PM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @06:09PM (#708911)

        Unfortunately, this is the way the world is going. Eventually, those DNA samples will be taken from the newborn baby, and kept on file forever and ever. Classified and categorized, analyzed, and plugged into the system, long before Baby is ready to join the system.

        I read California had been doing this for a while.

        • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday July 18 2018, @09:12PM (3 children)

          by captain normal (2205) on Wednesday July 18 2018, @09:12PM (#708999)

          Actually it's the whole country.
          http://genes-r-us.uthscsa.edu/ [uthscsa.edu]
          I don't know why so many AC trolls and TRDT are so fixated on California.

          --
          The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
          • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday July 18 2018, @11:07PM (2 children)

            by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday July 18 2018, @11:07PM (#709075) Journal

            Samples are handled differently state-by-state [aclu.org]. Even if the sample is used for research, it might not be associated with an individual's name, or fully sequenced. California's criminal database is worse, and it's likely expanding:

            https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/05/03/golden-state-killer-case-why-is-california-fighting-over-collecting-criminals-dna/ [mercurynews.com]

            “It’s been a struggle to bring DNA in California to the forefront” as a forensic crime-scene investigation tool, Bruce Harrington said at last week’s news conference announcing the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo, who allegedly killed Harrington’s brother Keith and sister-in-law in 1980.

            Harrington met with what he called a “buzz-saw of opposition” in the Legislature in the 1990s over his efforts to get California to create a DNA database. Ultimately, voters in 2004 approved Proposition 69, which required DNA collection from all felons. California now maintains the largest state DNA database in the country and the third largest in the world.

            Harrington is now backing a proposed initiative called the “Reducing Crime and Keeping California Safe Act of 2018,” which he said is needed to restore the DNA collection requirement for certain crimes that a recent criminal justice reform measure, Proposition 47 in 2014, reduced to misdemeanors.

            https://ballotpedia.org/California_Violent_Crime_Definition,_DNA_Collection,_and_Parole_Initiative_(2020) [ballotpedia.org]

            The California Violent Crime Definition, DNA Collection, and Parole Initiative is on the November 3, 2020 in California as an initiated state statute on November 3, 2020.

            The initiative was designed to add crimes to the list of violent felonies for which early parole is restricted, require DNA collection for certain misdemeanors, recategorize certain crimes of misdemeanor theft as felonies, and make changes to parole rules and proceedings. The ballot initiative would make changes to Proposition 47 (2014) and Proposition 57 (2016), which were both designed to reduce the prison inmate population.

            [...] The measure would require persons convicted of specified misdemeanors to submit to collection of DNA samples for state database.

            --
            [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
            • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday July 19 2018, @02:00AM (1 child)

              by captain normal (2205) on Thursday July 19 2018, @02:00AM (#709139)

              Violent crime DNA database is way different from collecting DNA from all new born babies.

              --
              The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:10PM (18 children)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:10PM (#708848) Journal

      I think you're missing a larger point.

      If you don't hand over your DNA, then YOU must be the criminal trying to hide evidence of your crime! Quick, taze him!

      police chief: If he doesn't hand over his DNA he must have committed an earlier crime where he left his DNA at the scene. He's a criminal. So burn him at the stake!

      junior donut eater: But if we burn him, then we won't be able to extract a DNA sample for comparison.

      police chief: It doesn't matter, he MUST be guilty!

      junior donut eater: But an actual DNA comparison could prove his innocence. The test works both ways. It has two possible outcomes.

      --
      Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:23PM (2 children)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:23PM (#708858) Journal

        Quick, taze him!

        Ahhhhh - nothing beats the smell of 50,000 volts of justice burning into a criminal's flesh! Wonder if we can turn the amerage up a little? Not a whole lot - not more than 100 amps, I'd say. We don't want to incinerate the bastard!

        --
        “I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
        • (Score: 4, Insightful) by edIII on Wednesday July 18 2018, @07:01PM

          by edIII (791) on Wednesday July 18 2018, @07:01PM (#708946)

          Your Sig is some real fucked up shit. I like it :)

          --
          Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
        • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 18 2018, @08:24PM

          by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 18 2018, @08:24PM (#708974) Journal

          The amperage is a relation to the load resistance and voltage. So either (somehow) lower the body's resistance (and maybe skin contact resistance), or raise the voltage in order to raise amperage. But power (watts) is a function of voltage and amperage. Which also means heating of the load. Including at poorly connected contact points (such as the skin). So extra heating and smoking can occur at the points of contact.

          As I wrote on SN once before: Police tasers should have a special setting labeled "Sovereign Citizen". (Referring to people who believe the law does not apply to them. I live by my own rules. Etc.)

          --
          Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:49PM (14 children)

        by VLM (445) on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:49PM (#708870)

        But an actual DNA comparison could prove his innocence. The test works both ways. It has two possible outcomes.

        Confusing the tech with the system.

        The tech is incredibly reliable. The system continues not to be. We're at the point where its almost infinitely more likely if DNA is found at the scene, then someone is tampering with evidence or pencil whipping lab results or just outright corrupt rather than the test statistically being faulty.

        There's also interesting chronological issues. Its trivial for me to provide an alibi that I didn't kill someone thousands of miles from my house yesterday, business clients and coworkers and family contacts and meetings and CCTV cam footage and cell phone records and stuff make it near impossible to set me up using evidence tampering alone. Now I know that I was busy in high school as a young kid when the victim died and a week later back in '88 it would have been trivial to prove I was in class when the victim was killed, but there's no way in hell I (or probably anyone else) could possibly provide any alibi 30 years later. My history teacher is almost certainly dead or senile or won't remember I was in class on one specific day when the crime happened, etc.

        One long term effect is likely to be some reform of statute of limitations laws. Right now, if (no, when...) someone tampers with evidence, its impossible to provide an alibi or documentation, so conviction is guaranteed. It would be difficult to impossible to set me up for a murder that happened last week, but a murder three decades ago is not possible to defend against, for anyone.

        Maybe the 2020s and 2030s equivalent of "swatting" people will be gathering DNA sample from someone (hair, blood, whatevs) then planting it on some cold case evidence, run the tampered evidence thru DNA on a hunch, and ta da instant conviction because its impossible to defend against. For example, it could trivially be proven in a court of law that I shot president JFK; my only hope is convincing the jury that I look healthy enough and my birth certificate look real enough that I wasn't alive when JFK was shot (which is true, I was negative a couple years old at that time; I guess someone could frame my mom as a SWAT).

        • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 18 2018, @05:00PM (1 child)

          by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 18 2018, @05:00PM (#708874) Journal

          I guess I could be framed for JFK's murder. I was 7 years old. They thought that shot would have been difficult for an "expert" shooter? Well, fact is, I was just playing around with my daddy's gun, and it fired by accident. It wasn't an assassination, just an accident.

          But, seriously - whoever pulled the trigger(s) on that day, is probably dead and gone now.

          --
          “I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @07:50PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @07:50PM (#708966)

            E. Howard Hunt is indeed dead. George H.W. Bush is still alive though.

        • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 18 2018, @08:33PM (7 children)

          by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 18 2018, @08:33PM (#708980) Journal

          Squeaking of the system being faulty in the face of real evidence. I remember stories on Tech Dirt a few years back about (some poe-dunk) court(s) saying (effectively) that video evidence is less reliable than the police officer's report and sworn testiphony.

          My point about the test having two possible outcomes: If someone wants to withhold their DNA and isn't obligated to provide it, that is not evidence of their guilt of some crime. In fact, their DNA could prove they are innocent. But you can't forcibly take their DNA if state law requires you to burn them at the stake for withholding their DNA for comparison.

          What is the reason for statute of limitations laws? If someone committed a crime 30 years ago, wasn't it still a crime? Isn't there still a victim? (unless the crime was masturbation or something equally horrible)

          --
          Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
          • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday July 18 2018, @09:36PM (2 children)

            by captain normal (2205) on Wednesday July 18 2018, @09:36PM (#709015)

            The LEOs don't have to force you to give your DNA. If you or any close retaliative sent DNA to a genetic database (a public record base), that could narrow down the search quite a bit. The all they have to do is watch you till you toss a cigarette but or coffee cup or come by early on garbage day and grab the contents of your trash to extract DNA. Then you lose buddy. Actually this is what happened in this case.

            " The arrest affidavit said that police, using outside labs, compared DNA evidence with information on genealogical websites, which narrowed the search to Miller and his brother.

            Earlier this month, police began to watch Miller, and took three used condoms from his trash, the affidavit said." ---TFA

            IANAL but as far as I know there no statute of limitation for murder and kidnapping in this country.

            --
            The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
          • (Score: 4, Informative) by sjames on Wednesday July 18 2018, @09:48PM (3 children)

            by sjames (2882) on Wednesday July 18 2018, @09:48PM (#709021) Journal

            There are multiple reasons for a statute of limitations.

            One is that after so much time, it is impossible to mount a defense. Pick a random non-special day 30 years ago. Do you remember for a fact if you were at work or not? Does anyone else? Could you even find any people who might remember if you were or were not at work that day?

            As to why that matters, you made a common but critical mistake in your post. DNA can NOT generally prove guilt. I know for a fact my DNA can be found in places I have never been to. I know that because I have sent mail before. There is little doubt my dna was on each and every letter and package I have ever sent. That guy that bumped into me this morning on the elevator? My DNA is on him. I did construction the summer after high school as a sort of change of pace. Since minor cuts are common, you will find my blood in several homes in the area, even inside the walls.

            It would be unjust to expect me today to recall where I was (that is not one of those homes) 30 years ago, there is only my word that I don't recall being in one of those homes after it was completed.

            The other reason is based on the claim that our penal system is justified by being rehabilitative in nature. That is, it is claimed that the purpose is so that people don't do it again (Hence the frequent use of "Department of Corrections", "correctional facility", etc). If the person has gone 30 years without committing another crime, they have arguably reformed already. Alternatively, if the only crime you can link a person to is that old, In the case of a singular crime, there's also that if the one and only crime you can link to a person is that long ago, and you have no other evidence of criminal activity, its a fair bet that you have the wrong person.

            • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday July 19 2018, @02:11AM (2 children)

              by captain normal (2205) on Thursday July 19 2018, @02:11AM (#709144)

              True, but did you leave your DNA on the undies of an underage girl by 30 years ago? I don't see how something like that could explained by innocent circumstance, do you?

              --
              The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
              • (Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday July 19 2018, @03:05AM

                by sjames (2882) on Thursday July 19 2018, @03:05AM (#709177) Journal

                No, but only because I had my own washer and dryer so I didn't need the laundromat.

                I can't say what the thousands of other people who are of no relation but share a number of alleles in common might have done.

              • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Thursday July 19 2018, @06:30AM

                by hemocyanin (186) on Thursday July 19 2018, @06:30AM (#709247) Journal

                A. No.
                B. Think back on who you were 30 years ago -- you are probably almost a different person.
                C. Looking over your shoulder for 30 years is itself, punishment.

        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 19 2018, @12:33AM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 19 2018, @12:33AM (#709102)

          Now I know that I was busy in high school as a young kid when the victim died and a week later back in '88 it would have been trivial to prove I was in class when the victim was killed, but there's no way in hell I (or probably anyone else) could possibly provide any alibi 30 years later. My history teacher is almost certainly dead or senile or won't remember I was in class on one specific day when the crime happened, etc.

          Perhaps you could. 20 years ago I was helping write software for schools, part of which enabled teachers to record each day for each student whether or not they were present. This was because state funding was tied to attendance -- every day, or even part of a day, that a student was in school, meant the school qualified for more money. (What, you thought the school cared so much about the students that they wanted to see their smiling faces each day? No, it's just money.) I don't know if every state does that, but at least one did.

          That data, even down to the individual student, was sent to the state education agency. For each school, every month. There might still be an archive of that data around somewhere.

          Even before computerization, there were paper forms -- because we in part got the software's requirements by reviewing the existing paper documents. That might still be around somewhere, on microfiche, or perhaps sucked into an imaging system by now (I've worked on imaging systems, too; lots of formerly microfiched documents are digitized now).

          So if you ever ARE accused of something from when you were back in school, dig for the documentation. It just might save your ass.

          • (Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday July 19 2018, @01:03AM (2 children)

            by sjames (2882) on Thursday July 19 2018, @01:03AM (#709119) Journal

            The secret to "your permanent record": If it didn't burn in a fire, get erased to make room for newer data, recorded in a format nobody knows anymore, or get destroyed in a basement flood, nobody knows where it is.

            • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday July 19 2018, @02:29AM (1 child)

              by captain normal (2205) on Thursday July 19 2018, @02:29AM (#709158)

              Unless of course you are named Archibald Buttle and the authorities are after Archibald Tuttle because a computer glitch spit out your name instead of Tuttle.
              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aeBq5H3O2I [youtube.com]

              --
              The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
              • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday July 19 2018, @02:36AM

                by captain normal (2205) on Thursday July 19 2018, @02:36AM (#709163)

                Hint... the song is a clue.

                --
                The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
    • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by takyon on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:22PM (2 children)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:22PM (#708856) Journal

      Cloning Revek (5022) cells for in vitro meat production.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 2) by Revek on Wednesday July 18 2018, @05:14PM (1 child)

        by Revek (5022) on Wednesday July 18 2018, @05:14PM (#708887)

        Nah, it would taste like snark.

        --
        This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
        • (Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Wednesday July 18 2018, @06:45PM

          by aristarchus (2645) on Wednesday July 18 2018, @06:45PM (#708938) Journal

          OK, as long as you utilize the whole snark, and do not just cut off the snark fins, and toss the rest of the snark back into the briny to die.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by EvilSS on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:54PM (2 children)

      by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:54PM (#708873)
      An inability to detect sarcasm is an early sign of frontotemporal dementia. You might want to get that checked out.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @06:12PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @06:12PM (#708912)

        An inability to detect sarcasm is an early sign of frontotemporal dementia. You might want to get that checked out.

        Are you serious? Hey, everybody, someone on the internet thinks their a doctor! Surprise, surprise.

        • (Score: 3, Touché) by EvilSS on Thursday July 19 2018, @12:29AM

          by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 19 2018, @12:29AM (#709100)
          It appears to be contagious
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:25PM (2 children)

    by VLM (445) on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:25PM (#708859)

    Whats he been doing for the last 30 years?

    I'm not making a stealth argument for going easy on the guy, but just stating the practical obvious argument the defense lawyer is going to make, that "everyone knows" that pedos are serial killers and they kill over and over for the thrill and predators can never stop and all that stuff that's a weird mixture of being true and merely good Hollywood...

    So the defense argument is going to be theres been dozens of recent incidents of sloppy lab work giving false evidence over the years, everyone knows that both pedo and predator is like the TV commercial "you can't stop with just one" so if they're accusing him of one murder-rape there must be like 59 others unsolved in the last 30 years. Because everyone knows predators are unstoppable, that means "rather unlikely" conspiracy theory stuff starts being more likely than he killed one then permanently quit the hobby.

    Just saying its an interesting collision of technical results being near perfect assuming no corruption colliding with some equally strong interesting belief systems about human behavior. There's a lot of Hollywood indoctrination about this situation on both sides, prosecutor and defense.

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 18 2018, @05:02PM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 18 2018, @05:02PM (#708878) Journal

      Similar thinking went through my mind. Except, I was wondering more about how many other people he may have killed. Reading TFA, he promised to kill again when he left taunts for the police.

      --
      “I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 18 2018, @08:38PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 18 2018, @08:38PM (#708983) Journal

      Hypothetical Prosecutor says: Maybe there IS a string of unsolved murders that this particular pedo is guilty of. Pointing out that there might be, is not a defense against the evidence and burden of proof being presented by the prosecution in this particular murder trial. Nor is it evidence of any fault in the science or technology. We may indeed be back with more murder trials for this guy once more evidence comes to light. But today we're trying THIS case. Not hypothetical ones.

      --
      Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:33PM (6 children)

    by VLM (445) on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:33PM (#708865)

    Interesting cultural implication:

    "recently" tough on crime, big brother is better brother, type of propaganda focused on creating new prison / death row inmates who were mostly young black men guilty of killing other young black men over crack cocaine related issues. Partially made up Hollywood, fake news, and politics and partially entirely factual, although a politically incorrect hate fact to observe their demographics, etc.

    We're entering a new era due to technology and big brother culture, such that for "awhile" we're going to get a temporary impulse of re-opened cold cases where "tough on crime" is gonna mean gray/white haired baby boomers doing the perp walk and being displayed in political advertisements, instead of young black men. So that will be interesting to watch, culturally.

    • (Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @05:48PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @05:48PM (#708900)

      Middle age to senior white men are current society's useless garbage responsible for every ill in modern life.

      Not saying I subscribe to that sentiment, just recognizing its existence.

      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 18 2018, @08:40PM (2 children)

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 18 2018, @08:40PM (#708984) Journal

        I typically qualify it further. The evil of society is Senior, Rich, Heterosexual, Racist, White, "christian", men.

        --
        Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @11:30PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @11:30PM (#709086)

          Who are also "stable geniuses".

        • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday July 19 2018, @02:33AM

          by captain normal (2205) on Thursday July 19 2018, @02:33AM (#709160)

          Humm...I do fit some of those categories, but I am not Rich, Racist nor "christian".

          --
          The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
    • (Score: 2) by Entropy on Wednesday July 18 2018, @06:18PM (1 child)

      by Entropy (4228) on Wednesday July 18 2018, @06:18PM (#708915)

      Or a group of mostly old men of a very predictable demographic. Roughly 6% of the population commits over 50% of murders. Thinking that would change just because a case is old?

      • (Score: 2) by deimtee on Wednesday July 18 2018, @09:28PM

        by deimtee (3272) on Wednesday July 18 2018, @09:28PM (#709007) Journal

        Your 'predictable demographic' is obviously young black men killing other young black men.
        They're not going to put much effort into solving a 30 year old case where one black gang member shot a rival gang member. The cold cases that get this treatment will be those involving young kids / serial killers / politically connected victims. The profiles of those criminals are probably quite different.

        --
        If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
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