What are your feelings about U S Supreme Court DNA ruling?
by Glander 27 Replies latest social current
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Giordano
Scalia IS AGAINST IT I AM FOR IT! Fingerprints. PHOTO'S, DNA Swab....... please! No difference!!!! Just a better way to separate the innocent from the guilty. You Rape OR kill and your DNA IS there.....that's it. Better then putting innocent people in jail and on death row.
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FlyingHighNow
How do you think the police could physically do that FHN?
Police do that, Cofty, lie about evidence. They also place evidence at a crime scene. Let's hope it happens a lot less often than not.
Edited to add: see my additional comments and links below.
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FlyingHighNow
FHN...why would you think that police would try and "frame" someone with DNA? That is more the stuff of conspiracy theories, than reality.
This does happen and it has been uncovered over the years. You're being naive if you think police don't plant and lie about evidence in some cases. Especially do they do it when one of their own has committed a crime. Sometimes they have framed one policeman when it was another who did the crime.
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FlyingHighNow
Here is one recent police tampering case that is under investigation:
http://www.omaha.com/article/20130405/NEWS/130409750
More details on the same case:
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EntirelyPossible
I can't see the difference between this and fingerprints, it's part of determining who you are.
How so? If I am not in a DNA database, how will that tell them who I am?
Specifically in the case of swabbing, they are taking something from you. In the case of a crime scene, you are leaving things behind. In the case of freeing an innocent person, the person being freed is willingly giving their DNA.
OTOH, it is a powerful tool for catching criminals and for clearing people of suspicion. There is no easy answer.
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FlyingHighNow
It is so possible for police and detectives to plant and tamper with evidence that states have laws against police planting or tampering with evidence:
http://www.shouselaw.com/planting-tampering-evidence.html
2. Penalties for planting evidence
For defendants who are not police officers, the California crime of planting evidence (evidence tampering) is a misdemeanor. 12 This means that the maximum penalty is up to six (6) months in county jail, a fine of up to one thousand dollars ($1,000), or both. 13
But for defendants who are law enforcement officers, the penalty is much steeper. In these cases, planting evidence is a felony . A police officer convicted of evidence tampering will be sentenced to either probation with up to a year in county jail, OR two (2), three (3) or five (5) years in state prison. 14
According to Long Beach criminal defense attorney Al Amer: 15
"When you think about it, it makes sense that the crime of planting evidence is punished much more harshly when a law enforcement officer does it. Police officers' jobs give them countless opportunities to frame people they dislike personally, or to plant evidence just in order to get an arrest. Because the danger of them abusing this power is so great, it's important that there be steep penalties when they do so."
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FlyingHighNow
Personally, I think when police plant or tamper with evidence they need to get much stiffer sentences than those listed above.