Latest news with #DNA
CBS News
6 hours ago
- General
- CBS News
Forensic breakthrough leads to out-of-state arrest in 2019 killing of Arlington teen, police say
DNA found in the car of a teen killed in Arlington in 2019 has led to the arrest of a man in Illinois on a murder charge, according to Arlington police. / Getty Images Darnell Jones II, 22, was apprehended in Chicago on Sunday with assistance from the Chicago Police Department. He was taken into custody without incident, police said Wednesday in a news release. Jones is accused of killing 19-year-old Evan Lacey, who was last seen leaving his home on Dec. 17, 2019. Four days later, investigators found Lacey's blue 2006 Dodge Magnum abandoned on South Hughes Avenue with a large amount of blood inside. Lacey's body was discovered by a utility crew investigating a water leak on Jan. 3, 2020, in a wooded area off Webb Ferrell Road. The body was badly decomposed; identification was made through fingerprint analysis by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office, which determined Lacey died from a gunshot wound to the head. Suspect linked by phone, DNA Evan Lacey Arlington Police Department According to investigators, cellphone records showed calls between Lacey and a number linked to Jones on the day Lacey disappeared. The two phones were later tracked to a location near where Lacey's body was discovered. DNA from Lacey's car revealed a mix of Lacey's and an unknown male's DNA, police said. Cold case cracked with forensics In March, detectives consulted a lab with advanced DNA separation technology. The following month, the lab successfully isolated a DNA profile from the car that matched Jones, according to Arlington police. Authorities said they received tips identifying Jones as a possible suspect following heavy media coverage of the murder. Police: Justice for Evan Lacey "Our detectives hit many roadblocks throughout this investigation, but they never gave up," Arlington Police Chief Al Jones said. "I'm proud of the outstanding police work they did and the proactive measures they took to identify the new technologies that ultimately helped us solve this case. "It's my hope that this news provides Mr. Lacey's family with some relief and some semblance of closure that I know they've desperately waited for." Jones, who has declined to speak with detectives, is awaiting extradition to Tarrant County.
India.com
10 hours ago
- Politics
- India.com
Assam Implements Immediate Gun License Policy For Locals In Border, Sensitive Areas
In a significant internal security move, the Assam government has approved the issuance of gun licenses to indigenous residents of sensitive and border districts, with the decision taking immediate effect. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced the policy after a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, stating that the step aims to empower local populations in areas vulnerable to infiltration and internal threats. In today's DNA, Rahul Sinha, Managing Editor of Zee News, analysed: According to the state government, only bona fide Assamese residents will be eligible for firearm licenses. The decision specifically excludes infiltrators or undocumented immigrants, with licenses being granted only to verified indigenous citizens residing in vulnerable regions — especially those near the Bangladesh border. #DNAWithRahulSinha | जनता को GUN थमाने के फैसले का विश्लेषण, असम के लोगों को GUN का लाइसेंस क्यों?#DNA #Gun #GunLicence #Assam #HimantaBiswaSarma @RahulSinhaTV — Zee News (@ZeeNews) May 28, 2025 Strategic Security Move Amid Infiltration Threats Assam shares a 267.5-km international border with Bangladesh across the districts of Karimganj, Cachar, Dhubri, and South Salmara-Mankachar. These regions have long been considered critical infiltration corridors for illegal Bangladeshi migrants, leading to recurring tensions and confrontations with local residents. To counter these challenges, the Assam government will prioritize issuing licenses in the districts of Dhubri, Nagaon, Morigaon, Goalpara, Barpeta, and parts of South Salmara, areas already grappling with demographic shifts and rising infiltration. CM Sarma said the move is part of a broader effort to ensure that local communities are not left vulnerable. 'It is essential to equip our people to defend themselves and maintain law and order in the face of infiltration and demographic imbalance,' he stated. Demographic Shifts And Rising Concerns According to census data from 1991 to 2011, seven districts in Assam — including Barpeta, Darrang, Morigaon, Nagaon, Bongaigaon, Dhubri, and Goalpara — have witnessed a decline in the Hindu population, with a decrease of 6.41% over two decades. In districts like Hailakandi and South Salmara-Mankachar, Hindus have reportedly become a minority. Multiple reports suggest that illegal immigrants may comprise over 6% of Assam's total population. Chief Minister Sarma has often questioned how the Muslim population in Assam surged from 20% to 45%, attributing the imbalance largely to cross-border infiltration from Bangladesh. Border Sensitivities And National Security The government's move also holds strategic implications for India's national security, especially in areas close to the Siliguri Corridor, or the 'Chicken's Neck' — a narrow strip of land that connects the northeast with the rest of India. Security experts have warned that both China and Bangladesh closely monitor the demographic and security conditions in these regions. By allowing indigenous people to arm themselves through legal means, the Assam government is not just responding to demographic threats but also preparing communities to play a role in safeguarding internal security during peace time. The state's swift implementation of the gun license policy is being viewed as a bold and controversial step that aligns with CM Sarma's hardline stance on border security and illegal immigration.
CNN
20 hours ago
- Health
- CNN
How a controversial type of warrant helped convict a former Arkansas police chief of a decades-old rape
Crime GeneticsFacebookTweetLink Follow DNA evidence has become a cornerstone of modern police work, be it through the use of genetic genealogy or submitting material found before modern advances in testing. One tool, known as a John Doe DNA warrant, has made news after a former police chief serving sentences for murder and rape escaped from an Arkansas prison Sunday. This type of warrant uses DNA recovered from a scene to help identify a suspect not known by name, keeping open cases that might have already hit a statute of limitations, according to the National Institute of Justice, the research branch of the US Department of Justice. 56-year-old Grant Hardin, who escaped from prison Sunday, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the death of James Appleton in February 2017, according to court documents. When his DNA was entered into the Arkansas DNA database, it triggered a 14-year-old warrant issued in connection to the 1997 rape of a schoolteacher in Rogers, showing him to be a match to the semen sample taken from the scene. He was charged with the woman's rape, and later pleaded guilty to two rape charges associated with the case. Hardin's case is just one example of how these warrants have been used over the last 25 years. While some think this specialized warrant is a new opportunity for justice, legal experts argue that DNA is not infallible — and this practice has the potential to violate the rights of suspects. Here is how John Doe DNA warrants have been used over the last 25 years. In 2000, a Wisconsin prosecutor issued a John Doe DNA arrest warrant on a 1994 sexual assault case, just days before the statute of limitations was about to run out, according to a retelling from the National Institute of Justice. The warrant was based on the perpetrator's DNA profile obtained from evidence, the National Institute of Justice said. While it was a new concept, the prosecutor argued the DNA profile could be accepted by the court as an identification of the person who was to be arrested. About three months later, the system identified the DNA profile as Bobby Dabney, a Wisconsin inmate who was ultimately convicted for the sexual assault at trial, the National Institute of Justice said. A 2003 Wisconsin Court of Appeals decision upheld the use of a John Doe DNA warrant, saying the case didn't violate the statute of limitations, and his due process rights weren't violated. An earlier case took decades to pan out. In March 2000, California authorities issued a John Doe DNA warrant associated with three sexual assault cases in northern California from the 1990s. Since the perpetrator's DNA was not already in state systems, it made it harder to identify, but they were able to narrow down their suspects through genetic genealogy, which blends DNA analysis in the lab with genealogical research. Authorities arrested Mark Jeffery Manteuffel in relation to the case across the country in Georgia in 2019. He pleaded guilty to two charges of forcible rape and one count of sodomy in 2020, the Associated Press reported. In 1997, Amy Harrison, a teacher, went to her school on a Sunday as she prepared for the week ahead. A church service was being held in the nearby cafeteria, so she was aware of others being in the building, a probable cause affidavit in the case said. After being at the school for a bit, she went to the bathroom in the teacher's lounge. But when she came out, she was attacked and raped by a man pointing a gun at her, the document said. While the assault was underway, she wiped a liquid substance off her leg and onto her sweatshirt, which authorities were able to get a DNA profile from, the affidavit says. While investigators spent the next six years trying to find the perpetrator, they had no luck, former Rogers Police Chief Hayes Minor said in an Investigation Discovery documentary on the case. (Investigation Discovery, like CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.) 'The laws of the state were very different then. And there's something called a statute of limitations, and basically what that means is that after a certain length of time, that case can no longer be prosecuted,' he said, adding that the day the assault happened was when 'the clock starts ticking for us.' After those six years, they wouldn't be able to prosecute the perpetrator even if they found him, Minor said — so they decided to try using a DNA profile on the warrant, as it had been recently used by a Wisconsin prosecutor to keep their case open. 'I typed it up, prosecuting attorney's office approved it, and we go to the judge and he signed it, which gave us then an active arrest warrant. We just had to figure out who it was that had that DNA,' Minor said in the documentary. It took 14 years before the DNA profile was connected to Hardin. While prosecutors continue to use John Doe DNA warrants, some law and professional organizations argue against them. In 2004, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Board of Directors adopted a resolution against the warrants, saying 'those charged in such a manner could be seriously hampered in their ability to mount an effective defense.' They argue that many factors could play into the reliability of DNA samples, including degradation over time, errors in collection and issues in storage. 'DNA is but one tool of many that should be utilized in determining whether an individual is responsible for a particular crime,' the resolution says. CNN has reached out to the organization to inquire if they still hold this position two decades later. The use of John Doe DNA indictments 'subverts defendants' rights by working around legislatively created statutes of limitations,' writes Emily Clarke in her 2019 journal article in the American Criminal Law Review. She argues instead for removing the statute of limitations in rape cases altogether. Not abiding by the statute of limitations could also undermine a fundamental tenet of the criminal justice system, Clarke wrote. 'In a society where defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty, courts of law should not be relying on the presumption that whoever left DNA at the scene of a crime is guilty,' the article says.
CNN
21 hours ago
- Health
- CNN
How a controversial type of warrant helped convict a former Arkansas police chief of a decades-old rape
Crime GeneticsFacebookTweetLink Follow DNA evidence has become a cornerstone of modern police work, be it through the use of genetic genealogy or submitting material found before modern advances in testing. One tool, known as a John Doe DNA warrant, has made news after a former police chief serving sentences for murder and rape escaped from an Arkansas prison Sunday. This type of warrant uses DNA recovered from a scene to help identify a suspect not known by name, keeping open cases that might have already hit a statute of limitations, according to the National Institute of Justice, the research branch of the US Department of Justice. 56-year-old Grant Hardin, who escaped from prison Sunday, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the death of James Appleton in February 2017, according to court documents. When his DNA was entered into the Arkansas DNA database, it triggered a 14-year-old warrant issued in connection to the 1997 rape of a schoolteacher in Rogers, showing him to be a match to the semen sample taken from the scene. He was charged with the woman's rape, and later pleaded guilty to two rape charges associated with the case. Hardin's case is just one example of how these warrants have been used over the last 25 years. While some think this specialized warrant is a new opportunity for justice, legal experts argue that DNA is not infallible — and this practice has the potential to violate the rights of suspects. Here is how John Doe DNA warrants have been used over the last 25 years. In 2000, a Wisconsin prosecutor issued a John Doe DNA arrest warrant on a 1994 sexual assault case, just days before the statute of limitations was about to run out, according to a retelling from the National Institute of Justice. The warrant was based on the perpetrator's DNA profile obtained from evidence, the National Institute of Justice said. While it was a new concept, the prosecutor argued the DNA profile could be accepted by the court as an identification of the person who was to be arrested. About three months later, the system identified the DNA profile as Bobby Dabney, a Wisconsin inmate who was ultimately convicted for the sexual assault at trial, the National Institute of Justice said. A 2003 Wisconsin Court of Appeals decision upheld the use of a John Doe DNA warrant, saying the case didn't violate the statute of limitations, and his due process rights weren't violated. An earlier case took decades to pan out. In March 2000, California authorities issued a John Doe DNA warrant associated with three sexual assault cases in northern California from the 1990s. Since the perpetrator's DNA was not already in state systems, it made it harder to identify, but they were able to narrow down their suspects through genetic genealogy, which blends DNA analysis in the lab with genealogical research. Authorities arrested Mark Jeffery Manteuffel in relation to the case across the country in Georgia in 2019. He pleaded guilty to two charges of forcible rape and one count of sodomy in 2020, the Associated Press reported. In 1997, Amy Harrison, a teacher, went to her school on a Sunday as she prepared for the week ahead. A church service was being held in the nearby cafeteria, so she was aware of others being in the building, a probable cause affidavit in the case said. After being at the school for a bit, she went to the bathroom in the teacher's lounge. But when she came out, she was attacked and raped by a man pointing a gun at her, the document said. While the assault was underway, she wiped a liquid substance off her leg and onto her sweatshirt, which authorities were able to get a DNA profile from, the affidavit says. While investigators spent the next six years trying to find the perpetrator, they had no luck, former Rogers Police Chief Hayes Minor said in an Investigation Discovery documentary on the case. (Investigation Discovery, like CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.) 'The laws of the state were very different then. And there's something called a statute of limitations, and basically what that means is that after a certain length of time, that case can no longer be prosecuted,' he said, adding that the day the assault happened was when 'the clock starts ticking for us.' After those six years, they wouldn't be able to prosecute the perpetrator even if they found him, Minor said — so they decided to try using a DNA profile on the warrant, as it had been recently used by a Wisconsin prosecutor to keep their case open. 'I typed it up, prosecuting attorney's office approved it, and we go to the judge and he signed it, which gave us then an active arrest warrant. We just had to figure out who it was that had that DNA,' Minor said in the documentary. It took 14 years before the DNA profile was connected to Hardin. While prosecutors continue to use John Doe DNA warrants, some law and professional organizations argue against them. In 2004, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Board of Directors adopted a resolution against the warrants, saying 'those charged in such a manner could be seriously hampered in their ability to mount an effective defense.' They argue that many factors could play into the reliability of DNA samples, including degradation over time, errors in collection and issues in storage. 'DNA is but one tool of many that should be utilized in determining whether an individual is responsible for a particular crime,' the resolution says. CNN has reached out to the organization to inquire if they still hold this position two decades later. The use of John Doe DNA indictments 'subverts defendants' rights by working around legislatively created statutes of limitations,' writes Emily Clarke in her 2019 journal article in the American Criminal Law Review. She argues instead for removing the statute of limitations in rape cases altogether. Not abiding by the statute of limitations could also undermine a fundamental tenet of the criminal justice system, Clarke wrote. 'In a society where defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty, courts of law should not be relying on the presumption that whoever left DNA at the scene of a crime is guilty,' the article says.
CNN
21 hours ago
- Health
- CNN
How a controversial type of warrant helped convict a former Arkansas police chief of a decades-old rape
DNA evidence has become a cornerstone of modern police work, be it through the use of genetic genealogy or submitting material found before modern advances in testing. One tool, known as a John Doe DNA warrant, has made news after a former police chief serving sentences for murder and rape escaped from an Arkansas prison Sunday. This type of warrant uses DNA recovered from a scene to help identify a suspect not known by name, keeping open cases that might have already hit a statute of limitations, according to the National Institute of Justice, the research branch of the US Department of Justice. 56-year-old Grant Hardin, who escaped from prison Sunday, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the death of James Appleton in February 2017, according to court documents. When his DNA was entered into the Arkansas DNA database, it triggered a 14-year-old warrant issued in connection to the 1997 rape of a schoolteacher in Rogers, showing him to be a match to the semen sample taken from the scene. He was charged with the woman's rape, and later pleaded guilty to two rape charges associated with the case. Hardin's case is just one example of how these warrants have been used over the last 25 years. While some think this specialized warrant is a new opportunity for justice, legal experts argue that DNA is not infallible — and this practice has the potential to violate the rights of suspects. Here is how John Doe DNA warrants have been used over the last 25 years. In 2000, a Wisconsin prosecutor issued a John Doe DNA arrest warrant on a 1994 sexual assault case, just days before the statute of limitations was about to run out, according to a retelling from the National Institute of Justice. The warrant was based on the perpetrator's DNA profile obtained from evidence, the National Institute of Justice said. While it was a new concept, the prosecutor argued the DNA profile could be accepted by the court as an identification of the person who was to be arrested. About three months later, the system identified the DNA profile as Bobby Dabney, a Wisconsin inmate who was ultimately convicted for the sexual assault at trial, the National Institute of Justice said. A 2003 Wisconsin Court of Appeals decision upheld the use of a John Doe DNA warrant, saying the case didn't violate the statute of limitations, and his due process rights weren't violated. An earlier case took decades to pan out. In March 2000, California authorities issued a John Doe DNA warrant associated with three sexual assault cases in northern California from the 1990s. Since the perpetrator's DNA was not already in state systems, it made it harder to identify, but they were able to narrow down their suspects through genetic genealogy, which blends DNA analysis in the lab with genealogical research. Authorities arrested Mark Jeffery Manteuffel in relation to the case across the country in Georgia in 2019. He pleaded guilty to two charges of forcible rape and one count of sodomy in 2020, the Associated Press reported. In 1997, Amy Harrison, a teacher, went to her school on a Sunday as she prepared for the week ahead. A church service was being held in the nearby cafeteria, so she was aware of others being in the building, a probable cause affidavit in the case said. After being at the school for a bit, she went to the bathroom in the teacher's lounge. But when she came out, she was attacked and raped by a man pointing a gun at her, the document said. While the assault was underway, she wiped a liquid substance off her leg and onto her sweatshirt, which authorities were able to get a DNA profile from, the affidavit says. While investigators spent the next six years trying to find the perpetrator, they had no luck, former Rogers Police Chief Hayes Minor said in an Investigation Discovery documentary on the case. (Investigation Discovery, like CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.) 'The laws of the state were very different then. And there's something called a statute of limitations, and basically what that means is that after a certain length of time, that case can no longer be prosecuted,' he said, adding that the day the assault happened was when 'the clock starts ticking for us.' After those six years, they wouldn't be able to prosecute the perpetrator even if they found him, Minor said — so they decided to try using a DNA profile on the warrant, as it had been recently used by a Wisconsin prosecutor to keep their case open. 'I typed it up, prosecuting attorney's office approved it, and we go to the judge and he signed it, which gave us then an active arrest warrant. We just had to figure out who it was that had that DNA,' Minor said in the documentary. It took 14 years before the DNA profile was connected to Hardin. While prosecutors continue to use John Doe DNA warrants, some law and professional organizations argue against them. In 2004, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Board of Directors adopted a resolution against the warrants, saying 'those charged in such a manner could be seriously hampered in their ability to mount an effective defense.' They argue that many factors could play into the reliability of DNA samples, including degradation over time, errors in collection and issues in storage. 'DNA is but one tool of many that should be utilized in determining whether an individual is responsible for a particular crime,' the resolution says. CNN has reached out to the organization to inquire if they still hold this position two decades later. The use of John Doe DNA indictments 'subverts defendants' rights by working around legislatively created statutes of limitations,' writes Emily Clarke in her 2019 journal article in the American Criminal Law Review. She argues instead for removing the statute of limitations in rape cases altogether. Not abiding by the statute of limitations could also undermine a fundamental tenet of the criminal justice system, Clarke wrote. 'In a society where defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty, courts of law should not be relying on the presumption that whoever left DNA at the scene of a crime is guilty,' the article says.
