Ashcroft wants $1B for DNA testing (where's it coming from?)http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-03-10-dna-usat_x.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration wants $1 billion over the next five years to increase the DNA analysis that has helped solve crimes, but faces huge backlogs, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Tuesday.
The money also would be used to expand the number of convicted criminals whose DNA could become part of a national FBI database. That file would, for the first time, include DNA from people in at least three states who have only been arrested but not convicted.
President Bush's goal is to eliminate all state and federal DNA analysis backlogs within five years, Ashcroft said at a news conference. There are now some 350,000 DNA samples pending nationwide from crime scenes and victims; up to 300,000 samples from convicted criminals need to be processed.
DNA is the material contained in every cell that carries an individual's unique genetic code. It has become a vital tool in solving crimes and exonerating innocent people wrongly convicted, including some sentenced to death.
The plan begins with a proposal for $232.6 million — about twice the current spending level — for next year. The proposal, which must be approved by Congress, includes money for the FBI and state crime labs to reduce backlogs, to test prison inmates who claim they are innocent and to improve technology.
To illustrate his point, Ashcroft displayed a glass chip invented at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that can process eight DNA samples in 20 minutes, compared with one over several hours using current systems.
"Under the president's initiative, we will not only speed the prosecution of the guilty, but also protect the innocent from wrongful prosecution," said Ashcroft, who was joined by John Walsh, host of Fox-TV's America's Most Wanted, and Kellie Greene, a rape victim who founded the advocacy group Speaking Out Against Rape.
Greene said DNA testing conclusively identified her attacker as a man already imprisoned for another crime, giving her peace of mind after several anxious years. "I didn't have to look over my shoulder any more," she said.
Defense attorneys favor increased use of DNA testing because it improves the accuracy of prosecutions, but one leading lawyer questioned the Justice Department's request for only $5 million in grants to states for testing of prisoners who were convicted before the advent of DNA analysis.
"I would have preferred that more than a pittance be given to post-conviction testing," said Lawrence Goldman, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "There are people languishing in jails for years and years."
The FBI's national DNA database includes 1.4 million profiles of convicted offenders. In 2002, that database provided almost 5,000 matches to samples taken from crime scenes, closing many previously unsolved cases and freeing police to pursue other crimes.
In testimony to Congress last week, Ashcroft said DNA analysis has identified numerous repeat offenders and been used in investigations of terrorist acts, including the Sept. 11 attacks, the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and the mailing of anthrax-laced letters in 2001.
Ashcroft also proposed legislation that would add those convicted of terrorism-related offenses to the list of those automatically subject to DNA sampling at the federal level. Most violent crimes are on the list, but the law does not specify terrorist crimes.
In addition, the Justice Department is proposing legislation allowing all samples collected by states — including those from people who have merely been arrested in Louisiana, Texas, Virginia and possibly other states — to be included in the national FBI database. The goal is to make the DNA profiles available to police nationwide.
Goldman said that could raise privacy concerns if innocent people are forced to submit samples and underscores the need to ensure testing accuracy so people aren't wrongfully convicted.
The proposed spending would dwarf amounts Congress has been willing to approve so far. Bills quadrupling that amount have been introduced in the past but have not made it through both the House and Senate.
But Ashcroft said advances in DNA technology and frequent news stories about criminals caught and innocent people set free because of the analysis should give the proposals a fresh push on Capitol Hill.
"This is something the American people understand as a good investment," he said. |
