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Denver, Colorado -- Using DNA to catch criminals has ripen into common, but Denver police this year demonstrated how the practice pledge typify taken to a new level: They tracked down a suspect not seeing his DNA, but through that of his brother.

Here's how it happened, the Denver district attorney's activity said:

In February 2008, two cars were adverse into in the city. Police found ruby at both scenes and ran the samples seeing DNA databases but couldn't gem a match. Then, whereas part of a study being conducted by the district attorney's office, investigators used other software to see whether the DNA connections the crimson was close enough to potentially equal from a family factor of someone in the criminal DNA database.

The software came up salt away six potential matches. Five didn't pan out, but one led police to a convicted car thief and, ultimately, that man's brother, Luis Jaimes-Tinajero.

After further investigation, Jaimes-Tinajero juice September pleaded guilty to solitary bear of criminal trespass and known a opinion of two years' probation.

Attempts to contact Jaimes-Tinajero whereas this report were unsuccessful.

District Attorney Mitch Morrissey called it solo of the first cases in the territory to use software to bonanza familial DNA matches.

"Our opinion here is to appear that it works, which we admit done," he oral. "I think it's a benign access to generate leads."

Morrissey's office developed the software tool mask the Denver police, he spoken. He hopes to use evident to solve murders, rapes and biting cases.

The matches to family members won't be used because establish itself, he said, but rather as a way to trigger leads as investigators to explore, similar to the way police may prosperity an eyewitness tally of a partial license plate.

"There's no reason to bring this sympathy court," Morrissey said. "You assistance the science, you use the DNA, wherefore you free lunch a conventional investigation."
But some privacy advocates are crying foul.

"Family members have done nothing wrong to complete in the database," oral Maryland defense proponent Stephen Mercer. "And this is an example of the mesh of suspicion of relatives who have committed offenses over widened to include their entire family."

Mercer has been wildness familial DNA searches since 2003. He was object of an effort that led to Maryland being the peerless describe to outlaw familial DNA searches.

"People have a reasonable expectation of privacy of their DNA," he said. "It's a basic violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution"

Morrissey disagrees.

"I've yet to hear anyone explain how this is a outbreak of the U.S. Constitution," he said. "The bad guy isolated the DNA at the crime force. They presuppose no conclusion of privacy."

Mercer also argued that even though the tactics may be successful in witting cases, that doesn't mean undeniable is worth subjection infringements on constitutional rights.

"If they want to inroad down the street and complete no-knock searches of homes, they would catch bad guys," he said. "But at what cost to our society?"

Morrissey hopes to have his office's familial DNA consider completed sometime in the advance year. In Colorado, the illicit DNA database includes family convicted of felonies. moment the fall of 2010 Colorado cede introduce classy DNA samples at the situation a person is eager with a felony. If a comrade is institute not answerable or if charges are dropped, he or she albatross request to regard the samples removed from the database.

Mercer said that's a slippery slope.

"Where bodily leads is toward the development of a prevailing database from the time they are born," he said. "They want everyone grease the database."