QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I’ve been unable to square how such a (genealogy) search would not
violate the Fourth Amendment, nor Article 26 of our (Maryland’s)
Declaration of Rights,” said Delegate Charles Sydnor III (D-44B), the
bill’s sponsor, in a Tuesday legislative hearing. “Don’t get me wrong—I
want to see unsolved crimes resolved and perpetrators prosecuted as
well.”
--------------------------------------------------------------
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The pending Maryland bill would seemingly outlaw any search not
intended to directly match genetic markers from crime scenes with those
legally on file in government databases. According to the policy note in
the legislature, it would potentially entail prison time for those
persons “willfully failing to destroy a DNA sample for which
notification has been sent stating that the DNA sample has been
destroyed or for which destruction has been ordered."
---------------------------------------------------------------
STORY: "Maryland bill proposes curbing forensic geneology," by Senior Science Writer Seth Augenstein, published by Forensic Magazine on January 24, 2019.
GIST: "Forensic
genealogy to identify criminal offenders through GEDmatch and related
databases would be prohibited in Maryland, according to the intent of a
new bill pending in that state’s legislature. Proponents of the ban point to civil-rights concerns, while opponents
of the bill point to the case-breaking potential use of databases
through which people voluntarily make genetic information public. “I’ve been unable to square how such a (genealogy) search would not
violate the Fourth Amendment, nor Article 26 of our (Maryland’s)
Declaration of Rights,” said Delegate Charles Sydnor III (D-44B), the
bill’s sponsor, in a Tuesday legislative hearing. “Don’t get me wrong—I
want to see unsolved crimes resolved and perpetrators prosecuted as
well.” “This bill is an error—this bill is a mistake,” countered John Fitzgerald, chief of police for Chevy Chase. The bill was introduced earlier this month, and came up for a first
hearing this week. At the Tuesday hearing, the sponsor Sydnor cited U.S.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in his dissent in the landmark
2013 split highest court decision in
Maryland v. King, in which Scalia inveighed that the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures “must prevail.” “Suspicionless searches are never allowed—if the purpose is just ordinary crime-solving,” he said. Fitzgerald and three other law enforcement officers said GEDmatch’s
voluntary uploads in no way constituted an “expectation of privacy.”
Genealogy needs to happen, they said, citing the successes already
realized in solving a murder and a series of rapes in the state. “Marylanders want this to happen … they need this to happen,”
Fitzgerald added. “It narrows the haystack so we can find the needle.” Maryland
is the only state that has banned familial searching (FS), a way to
comb federal and state databases for relatives of unknown offenders who
left DNA at a crime scene. Maryland is also the site of two of the historic runs of arrests made
through leads provided by genetic genealogy—and in particular GEDmatch.
Marlon Michael Alexander, a 39-year-old man from Germantown,
was arrested in September in a series of cold-case rapes dating back to 2007.
And Fred Frampton Jr., now 32, was arrested and charged with a 2010
home invasion and shooting that left the victim a quadriplegic, and
whose death in 2015 was ruled a homicide. Both crimes scenes yielded DNA of the perpetrators—and the searches
through GEDmatch yielded relatives allowing family trees to be
constructed leading to the suspects. “This cold case may have never been solved without the use of genetic
genealogy,” said Major Ross Passman, of the Anne Arundel County Police,
at the hearing, referencing the Frampton arrest. The use of forensic genealogy started several years ago, with the
work of such pioneers as Colleen Fitzpatrick and Barbara Rae-Venter.
Fitzpatrick helped identify the suspect in the “Phoenix Canal Murders”
through a Y-STR search
leading to the arrest of Bryan Patrick Miller in January 2015. Rae-Venter made an unprecedented breakthrough in
the identification of the killer responsible for one of America’s notorious cold cases, the Bear Brook Murders in New Hampshire,
in 2016 and 2017; eventually the “Chameleon” killer believed
responsible for the four bodies found in barrels in the New Hampshire
woods was identified as Terry Peder Rasmussen—
also through Rae-Venter’s forensic genealogy. Rae-Venter also worked the genetic trail through GEDmatch that led to
the alleged Golden State Killer, Joseph DeAngelo, back in April. That
high-profile arrest created a tidal wave of interest in using the
technique for cold-case investigation where other traditional leads have
reached dead ends. One of the players to get involved providing the
analysis was Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia-based company that had been
focusing on phenotyping—face-image approximation based on SNP analysis
of unknown suspects’ DNA. The company hired CeCe Moore, a genealogist
known from TV appearances, and they undertook a genetic genealogy
program credited with dozens of assists leading to arrests in some of
the nation’s most notorious murders and rapes in various states.
"GEDmatch users who allow their DNA to be openly compared for
relatedness have agreed to terms of service that explicitly allow law
enforcement use," said Steve Armentrout, the CEO of Parabon. "Users have
complete control over thwhether their data is included in GEDmatch and
whether is is publicly comparable." The pending Maryland bill would seemingly outlaw any search not
intended to directly match genetic markers from crime scenes with those
legally on file in government databases. According to the policy note in
the legislature, it would potentially entail prison time for those
persons “willfully failing to destroy a DNA sample for which
notification has been sent stating that the DNA sample has been
destroyed or for which destruction has been ordered.""
The entire post can be read at:
https://www.forensicmag.com/news/2019/01/maryland-bill-proposes-curbing-forensic-genealogy
PUBLISHER'S
NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles
Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my
previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put
considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith
and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's
forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section
which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can
be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
