Posted on 06/11/2019 9:24:44 AM PDT by FoxInSocks
When she was raped at gunpoint at the Alexandria, Va., pool where she worked in 2016, the 24-year-old lifeguard could describe her attacker only as a thin man she believed was 35 to 40 years old and a little over 6 feet tall.
Three years later, police arrested Jesse Bjerke, after having DNA from the attack analyzed by genealogy researchers who used public databases to link the sample to people in Bjerke’s family — an increasingly common tool for cracking unsolved crimes. Bjerke is also under investigation for a similar rape at a pool in Fairfax County in 2015, according to court documents.
Attorneys for Bjerke, 37, are now seeking to have the DNA evidence thrown out of court, arguing that assembling and testing a genetic profile without a warrant violates the Constitution.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I’m curious how this constitutional question will play out. There have been a number of cold cases cracked recently with these genealogical DNA searches.
It’s great to finally catch these perpetrators and maybe give some closure to their families, but I’m not convinced it’s constitutional.
Attorneys for Bjerke, 37, are now seeking to have the DNA evidence thrown out of court, arguing that assembling and testing a genetic profile without a warrant violates the Constitution.
I am. The perp did not have to leave any DNA at the scene of the crime, but voluntarily did................
I am. The perp did not have to leave any DNA at the scene of the crime, but voluntarily did................
It’s constitutional.
No mention of race in the description. You know what that means.
I think DNA evidence is comparable to fingerprints left at the site. I don’t believe it requires a warrant to lift exemplars at a crime scene and compare them to database collections at state and federal levels.
Hang his ass, and then investigate further.
As it stands, if you have a large extended family there is a decent chance that someone has the means to build a genetic profile of you using the DNA of gullible relatives who wanted to confirm that they are really Irish or something. It's creepy that such fundamental info could be created and used in unknown ways against your interests.
That’s not the part under question. It’s the DNA of relatives that led to the surveillance and subsequent collection of the suspect’s DNA for matching to the crime scene.
I think it’s an interesting legal question, anyway.
A 20 year old case was recently solved by using one of those DNA databases and getting hits which were not him but close family.
They then checked his and got a 100% match. It was 2 teenage girls who got lost trying to find a party. Their bodies were found the next day in the trunk of one of them’s car.
Raped and shot in the head.
The perp of course says he is innocent. He is a Black male. Interestingly the police chief who solved the case is also a Black male who knew the perp in high school.
Nope. Last name is a clue.
From other sources, the suspect is white.
Don’t need a warrant because the family tree info is public.
If you are tested you’ll start getting notices of possible relatives.
Many are like 5th of 6th cousins.
Police do the same and get possible links. Then they have to do the stubby pencil work and narrow it down, then do interviews to narrow it down some more. They then have a few possible suspects. That’s when they have to get a warrant. They have many ways to get a DNA sample from a suspect.
If DNA collection is ‘unconstitutional’ then fingerprints are as well. This’ll be thrown out ASAP..........
Exactly. If the suspect isn’t named it means he’s white.
I thought everybody knew that.
My concern is not the DNA from the crime scene, but the mechanism used to identify a suspect for further investigation and obtain a sample to compare. There was no DNA match in any state or federal database, or apparently anywhere else.
I think he loses as it was not his DNA in the genealogical database and the owners of the DNA put it in the public domain. It led to him being the suspect and they got his DNA from discarded items already ruled not needing a warrant.
That said, there might be other and better cases that warrant a warrant (npi).
I doubt the family tree info is “public,” but I haven’t read any of the agreements people sign when providing their DNA for genealogical purposes.
Not to mention this suspect probably didn’t enter into any agreement with a genealogy company — and that’s a substantially different circumstance.
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