RICHMOND, Va.—Virginia’s Forensic Science Board asked lawmakers Friday to consider implementing and funding a controversial form of DNA searching that helps identify criminal suspects using genetic material from their relatives.
The board that oversees the state’s Department of Forensic Science voted unanimously to petition the General Assembly to approve so-called familial DNA searches.
Some board members said Virginia law already allows the use of familial DNA searches. But department officials said they sought lawmakers’ approval because it was a matter of policy, not just science.
“It’s not a lab issue. It can be done,” said Pete Marone, the department director.
Familial DNA searches are used in California and Colorado, but other states have been slow to use them amid concerns about the privacy of innocent relatives of those suspected of crimes. Maryland and the District of Columbia strictly prohibit the searches.
Marone and others in the department raised the privacy concerns and also noted concerns about the low success rate of such searches and startup costs.
He said it was best to air those concerns first.
“I’m not saying these are reasons why we’re saying we shouldn’t do this,” Marone said. “I’m saying make sure everybody is informed and understands what road we’re going down so we can answer those questions before we start down that road and can’t put the genie back in the bottle.
“I’m not saying stop it, but do it correctly.”
The Virginia State Crime Commission is scheduled to take up the issue next month and could make a recommendation before legislators return to Richmond in January. And prosecutors who see such searches as another crime-fighting tool voted this summer to request the department begin such searches.
The technique has been credited with identifying a suspect, Lonnie Franklin Jr., in the so-called “Grim Sleeper” killings in California last summer.
The DNA of Franklin’s son was entered into California’s database after he was convicted in a weapons case, and authorities found it so similar to that left behind on the “Grim Sleeper” slayings that the suspect had to be a close relative. Authorities followed the elder Franklin until they obtained a sample of his DNA, which they say matches that of the killer.
The elder Franklin was charged with 10 counts of murder and other charges in killings between 1985 and 2007.
The searches cannot be done with existing software, so Virginia has options of either using software developed by Colorado or California, purchasing new software or developing its own.
Marone said using another state’s software would leave Virginia dependent on that state to fix any ensuing problem; buying software and training staff in using it would cost about $100,000, and developing software would be costly and take even longer.
Colorado has offered to load Virginia’s DNA database onto its software platform to perform the searches, but Marone said he had concerns about turning over the information.
Even with software in place, department officials estimated it would cost about $65,000 to conduct 12 searches a year. Even then, there’s no guarantee completed searches will yield a suspect: success depends on a close relative being in the DNA databank for committing a crime.
Officials expressed concern about whether law enforcement agencies would have the funds necessary to chase down multiple leads generated by such a search—in addition to the need to investigate several innocent relatives to catch the guilty one.
Steve Benjamin, a defense attorney on the board, countered that chasing down leads that often lead nowhere is already part of the investigative process.
“Obviously nobody whose innocent enjoys having a police officer come to his door and ask him questions, but the reality is that that happens all the time,” he said. “I would think that investigations that are based upon science … are much more reliable than investigations based on anonymous tips.”
Rick Conway, assistant commonwealth’s attorney in Prince William County, was disappointed that the board sought legislative guidance rather than simply forging ahead.
He said the DNA testing could help generate leads to the so-called East Coast rapist suspect in attacks since 1997 on 19 women in Virginia and three other states.
“If you save one more person from being a victim of his, it’s well worth it,” he said.
