Search Results for: dna testing

US President Trump on Monday signed a bill that will help eliminate rape kit backlogs throughout the country. HR 777, also known as the Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act, authorizes up to $151,000,000 in funding per year to state and local governments to process and test DNA evidence. The Act renews the Debbie Smith Act, which [...]

The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas stayed the execution of death row inmate Rodney Reed on Friday, remanding the case to the trial court for further development. Reed was convicted in 1996 of the murder of Stacey Stites and was set for lethal injection on Wednesday evening. Stites, 19, was strangled, and her body [...]

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday denied both applications for a stay of execution for Georgia death row in mate Ray Jefferson Cromartie. He was set to be executed by lethal injection at 7:00 PM on Wendesday but was delayed while the applications were considered; he was executed at 10:59 PM. Cromartie consistently maintained his [...]

The US Department of Justice on Tuesday released an interim policy regarding the use of investigative methods that involve DNA analysis and genealogical research to create leads for unsolved crimes. The Interim Policy on Forensic Genetic Genealogical DNA Analysis and Searching is composed of nine sections that will guide the use of forensic genetic genealogy [...]

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency said Thursday it needs more time to accurately identify the parents of detained immigrant children. The response follows a June 26 court order in the US District Court for the Southern District of California . ICE wrote that they would be using DNA testing to identify the parents [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist John Buckleton of New Zealand's Institute of Environmental Science and Research, discusses the future of DNA software in the courtroom... As anyone who has ever watched CSI can tell you, DNA is well established as the gold...

JURIST Guest Columnist Corinne Maupin of Valparaiso University School of Law discusses advances in facial recognition technology and the corresponding ripeness for matching regulations ... A recent article in the ABA Journal noted that law enforcement agencies have proposed...

DeJenay Beckwith, a woman who was sexually assault in 2011, has filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas against the city of Houston for the city's...

The state of Arkansas on Thursday held the execution of Ledell Lee, the first in the state in 11 years. The sentence was carried out following the denial earlier that day by the US Supreme Court [official...

An 18-person UN human rights panel called on Kuwait Friday to amend its compulsory DNA testing law. The law, a counter-terrorism measure put in place by Kuwait's parliament in 2015, facilitated a DNA database of citizens and...