A Communitarian Approach: A Viewpoint on the Study of the Legal,Ethical and Policy Considerations Raised by DNA Tests and Databases

See Etzioni A. , The Moral Dimension (New York: The Free Press, 1988), and Etzioni A. , How Patriotic is the Patriot Act?: Freedom versus Security in the Age of Terrorism (New York: Routledge, 2004).

For a fuller description of this kind of communitarianism, see Etzioni A. , The New Golden Rule (New York: Basic Books, 1996).

For more on this point, see Etzioni A. , How Patriotic is the Patriot Act? supra note 1.

For further examples of such warrantless, suspicionless searches that have been ruled permissible under the Fourth Amendment, see Froomkin M. , “The Metaphor is the Key: Cryptography, the Clipper Chip, and the Constitution,” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 143 (1995): 824–25.

For more on this point, see Etzioni A. , How Patriotic is the Patriot Act? supra note 1.

See Etzioni A. , The Moral Dimension, supra note 1.

See Rosen J. , “A Watchful State,” The New York Times Magazine, October 7, 2001, at 38ff. Also, Rosen J. , The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious Age (New York: Random House, 2004).

Jost K. , “DNA Databases,” The CQ Researcher 9, no. 20, May 28, 1999. Available at <http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre1999052800> (last visited February 16, 2006).

Romano L. , “When DNA Meets Death Row, It's the System That's Tested,” The Washington Post, December 12, 2003, at A1.

Flynn K. , “Fighting Crime with Ingenuity, 007 Style: Gee-Whiz Police Gadgets get a Trial Run in New York,” New York Times, March 7, 2000, at B1.

Interview: Dr. Paul Ferrara, Director of Virginia Division of Forensic Science, “Discusses Gathering of DNA Evidence,” All Things Considered, National Public Radio, July 27, 2000.

It has been widely documented that eyewitness accounts are unreliable. As Justice Brennan wrote in his opinion in United States v. Wade, “The vagaries of eyewitness identification are well known; the annals of criminal law are rife with instances of mistaken identification.” Wells Gary L. and Seelau Eric P. summarize findings regarding eyewitness identification: “Although there is no way to estimate the frequency of mistaken identification in actual cases, numerous analyses over several decades have consistently shown that mistaken eyewitness identification is the single largest source of wrongful convictions.” Wells G. L. and Seelau E. P. , “Eyewitness Identification: Psychological Research and Legal Policy on Lineups,” Psychology, Public Policy and Law 1, no. 4 (1995): 765–791.

Even this cannot be assumed with full confidence given that in a few instances rapists have intentionally left other people's semen behind.

National Public Radio, “Crime Labs under Scrutiny around the US for Producing Evidence that Wrongly Convicts People for Felonies,” Weekend Edition, May 12, 2001.

The Office of the Inspector General reported that FBI employee Jacqueline Blake falsified lab documents. The report also lists and explains several vulnerabilities in the FBI lab's protocol and practice. Office of the Inspector General, The FBI DNA Laboratory, A Review of Protocol and Practice Vulnerabilities, May 2004. Available at <http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/0405/index.htm> (last visited February 10, 2006).

Cowan R. and Hencke D. , “Row over ‘blank’ CCTV tapes at station,” The Guardian, August 23, 2005, at 8.