Chesco DA Applauds Supreme Court on DNA

Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan said a ruling on taking DNA from suspects arrested in more serious crime cases gives law enforcement a powerful new crime-fighting tool.

In a 5-4 decision the U.S Supreme Court Justices ruled that taking DNA from a suspect arrested for crime does not violate provision of the Fourth Ammendment of the Constitution. In writing the majority opinion Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote: “DNA identification represents an important advance in the techniques used by law enforcement to serve legitimate police concerns for as long as there have been arrests.”

Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan agrees. In an interview with CBS3/Eyewitness News said "this gives us a tool to make sure that the right people are convicted of the right crimes, so it should be a win-win for everyone involved."

In writing the dissenting opinion for the court, The Washington Post quotes Justice Antonin Scalia who took the unusual step of reading his dissenting opinion from the high court bench. “The court has cast aside a bedrock rule of our Fourth Amendment law: that the government may not search its citizens for evidence of crime unless there is a reasonable cause to believe that such evidence will be found,” Scalia said.

Eyewitness News Reporter Todd Quinones quotes Hogan as saying there must be restriction placed on what the government can with any DNA collected as a result of this ruling.

Justice Scalia said the ruling will quickly open the floodgates on collecting DNA from virtually anyone who arrested, either correctly or wrongly.

“Make no mistake about it: As an entirely predictable consequence of today’s decision, your DNA can be taken and entered into a national DNA database if you are ever arrested, rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason,” quotes the Washington Post.