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22e42d6008e.html Many question DNA 'sweep' Blood taken from 200 men in killer search Jennifer L. Brown - Associated Press Thursday, May 31, 2001 Oklahoma City --- Police know who killed Juli Busken. Not by name, but by the genetic code he left behind in the victim's car five years ago. In their search for John Doe, police took blood from 200 men and compared their DNA to that of the man who left behind semen in Busken's car. There were no matches. Police plan to test 200 more men who either lived near the victim and have a criminal record of violence, resemble the police sketch or have otherwise been identified as a possible suspect. There is a growing debate about whether innocent people should have to hand over their blood. Besides concern over unreasonable searches, even supporters of DNA testing say such large-scale genetic dragnets raise the possibility of police coercion. For Busken's father, the answer is easy. Besides a rough sketch of someone who was seen with Busken before her death, a DNA match is about all he has to cling to in hopes of finding his daughter's killer. "If you don't want to give your DNA, you've got something to hide," said Bud Busken, who runs a golf course in Benton, Ark. "I'll stand by that until my dying day." Busken, 21, had just finished her last semester at the University of Oklahoma when she was last seen on Dec. 20, 1996, and was about to drive home to Arkansas for Christmas vacation. Police believe she was abducted from the parking lot of her apartment building. Her body was found near a lake. The aspiring ballerina had been raped and shot in the head. Cleveland County District Attorney Tim Kuykendall turned to the DNA testing last year. Some of those tested gave DNA samples to exonerate themselves. Others were people associated with Busken, including fellow college dancers and even stagehands who worked at the university. Defense attorneys and civil libertarians call the sweeps an improper violation of the constitutional right to privacy. A few such DNA dragnets have taken place in this country, but there's little precedent for determining their legality. Mass blood screenings are more common abroad, where the first was in 1987 in England when 5,000 people had their blood tested after two teenagers were raped and killed. Fred Leatherman, chairman of the forensic evidence committee of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said he knew of no legal challenges to block mass screenings in the United States. He predicted they would be challenged, calling them "a clear violation of the right to privacy." Critics fear what happens to DNA samples after they're collected. Some suspect they would be used in future investigations by forensic scientists who sometimes make errors, or that they might end up in the hands of health insurance companies that could see which diseases a person is predisposed to develop. "This is just horrendous, appalling," said Doug Parr, a board member of the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. "It smacks of the kind of police state tactics that this country has gone to war against." Most of the 200 men tested so far gave their blood voluntarily, but prosecutors obtained search warrants in a few cases where people declined to provide the sample. One of those was Dennis Stuermer, 23, who said his reputation has been tarnished because Oklahoma City police forced him to give a blood sample. Stuermer's photograph ran on the front page of the state's largest newspaper after a woman in jail, who knew his family, said he might be Busken's killer. In the months it took to get the results of the DNA test, his landlord tried to evict him, a boss threatened to fire him and a few personal relationships deteriorated. "I was scared to death," he said. "I didn't have anything to be scared of, but people were breathing down my throat." Attorney Doug Wall said he and Stuermer, who has no criminal background, may sue the police. "Police are basically saying, 'If we pop a needle into enough arms, we're bound to get lucky sooner or later,' " Wall said. Arthur Spitzer, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, said requiring people to give DNA samples without other evidence linking them to the crime would be an unconstitutional search and seizure. Attorney Barry Scheck, who co-founded the Innocence Project, a group that helps inmates challenge convictions with DNA evidence, said there are potential problems whenever so much testing is done. Some people might feel coerced to give blood. "It's inherently coercive when a policeman comes to your door and says, 'Give us a sample of your blood and if you don't give it to us, you're a suspect,' " he said. Bud Busken believes if authorities found his daughter's killer, it might stop the emotional roller coaster he and his wife have been on since she was killed. "Our life is never going to go back the way it was," he said. > ON THE WEB: National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence: www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/dna/welcome.html ACLU: www.aclu.org |
