National DNA Data Bank

[quax@interserv.com]

The New York Times today writes on a report to be released today on the 
establishment of a national DNA data bank to parallel the national fingerprint 
system. The DNA system was authorized in a little-noted provision of the 1994 
Crime Control Act.

The article states that one of the DNA system's main advantage over 
fingerprinting will be in identifying sexual and other bodily assault criminals 
who leave tell-tales, as well as in correcting victims' sometimes faulty 
identification of innocents.


Some civil libertarians are critical of the project as invasive of privacy.

Law enforcement officials and others applaud it, two of whom are OJ's former 
attorneys, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, who run the Innocence Project, a 
program which uses DNA testing to help free those falsely convicted.