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" Appeal of Conviction Renews Focus On Police Use of DNA "
Here we go again --- post-KING case ! Maryland, again, is at the center of the debate on other alleged offenses.
Anne Arundel County native George Varriale , age 46, was arrested and convicted of burglary based in part upon his DNA information which was kept in the Anne Arundel County police data base. Varriale argues that the genetic information was improperly kept and used to link him to a Coke can found at the crime scene.
Varriale voluntarily gave a DNA sample to Anne Arundel County police in 2012, as they were investigating a reported rape. His sample not link to the rape, but subsequently police used it to place him at a 2008 burglary of a Glen Burnie business.
Because Varriale was not charged in the rape case, he argued to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals that police should not have retained his genetic information at all. In making this argument Varriale's appeal challenges the not-well-known but widely-used police police of holding on to genetic information volunteered by individuals in one case so that it may be used in future investigations.
Legal critics have called for such records to be thrown out (destroyed), much like the highly-regulated samples that the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has ruled Maryland law enforcement may take from suspects charged with serious crimes [ see the KING case, SCOTUS, 2013].
Since it is acknowledged the Varriale volunteered his sample DNA, he was clearly subject to the same protections afforded by the Supreme Court in KING. However, as Varriale's attorney argued to the appeals court, " He did not consent to the state doing what it wants with his DNA for the rest of his life."
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