Georgia DNA program solves crimes and helps protect the innocent
Since 1998, Georgia has collected the DNA of certain felons in a database in the hopes of solving cold cases and future crimes. Authorities accomplish this effort by taking DNA found at a crime a scene and comparing it with the DNA of prisoners collected in the database. Thus far, the database has led to 1,415 cases being solved in Georgia. There were 75 solved cases in the month of May alone.
The Macon Telegraph has the story.
The state’s DNA database known as the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) currently contains more than 186,000 samples from Georgia prisoners. The original database began in the mid 90s when the FBI used it as a test program. Authorities realized that a DNA profile is essentially a bunch of numbers, and that it could easily compare one sample of DNA against another sample through a database. Congress then passed a law allowing the federal government to keep a database of DNA from offenders and evidence, and states were able to decide which offenders would be required to give DNA samples.
Georgia became the first state to form a state database in 1998. In the early years, only people convicted of sex crimes were put into the database. This rule expanded to include all felons sent to prison or released on or after July 1, 2000, inmates sentenced to death or serving life sentences, and those sentenced to felony probation for violent crimes.
To collect DNA, prisoners were once subjected to giving blood, but after 2000, DNA began to be collected by swabbing the inside of the cheek. DNA that is collected from evidence is automatically put into the database. The samples collected in Georgia’s CODIS are then sent to the FBI’s national database. This allows law enforcement from all over the country to compare different samples. To date, the database has matched 287 crimes in other states to Georgia offenders.
If a match is found, analysts take the original samples of DNA from the suspect and the evidence and run the test a second time. The proper law enforcement agents are then contacted, and those agents are then required to obtain new DNA sample for a third evaluation.
Most crimes solved with CODIS are sexual in nature; however, the database has also solved burglaries and robberies. In one case, a man was arrested for burglary after his DNA was found on a cigarette butt he left behind at a burglarized home.
All in all, the database represents a powerful tool for law enforcement. That power is only expected to grow as more and more people are taken into the criminal justice system and required to turn over their DNA.
DNA has become very important in solving cases in Georgia and throughout the U.S. DNA has also helped free some innocent people in Georgia who had been convicted of crimes they did not commit, thanks to the work of groups like the Georgia Innocence Project. We hope that this database is used properly, and helps free the innocent as well as help resolve serious unsolved crimes.
Pate & Brody is an accomplished Georgia law firm with offices in Atlanta, Macon and Madison. Our lawyers are dedicated to pursuing justice for people charged with serious crimes. We have successfully represented clients facing serious federal criminal charges and state criminal charges in courts across Georgia. Our lawyers have been recognized on the list of Georgia's "Super Lawyers", and included among Georgia's "Legal Elite" by Georgia Trend Magazine. Page Pate was recently the Chairman of the Criminal Law Section of the Atlanta Bar Association.
