Posted by Orin Kerr:
Government Database Indentifies Serial Rapist:
Ths existence and use of massive government databases raise a number
of important questions about invasions of privacy. As [1]this
interesting New York Times article suggests, however, such databases
can also help the police crack very important criminal cases:
A forgotten piece of evidence in a rape case from more than 30
years ago - a pair of underpants - has led to the DNA
identification of a suspect in at least 24 other rapes and sexual
assaults stretching from New York to Maryland, the authorities said
yesterday.
The DNA matches have linked the man to a notorious series of
unsolved rapes that terrorized Montgomery County in Maryland and
drew comparisons with the rampage of the Boston Strangler.
Manhattan authorities said the Maryland cases might be only the
beginning, as other states run the suspect's samples through their
own DNA databanks.
The man, identified by his lawyer as Fletcher Anderson Worrell,
58, was located in an Atlanta suburb late last year after he tried
to buy a shotgun. The background check turned up two arrest
warrants for him in New York City.
References
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/27/nyregion/27rape.html
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