The Someone You're Not: "Our packed prisons are starting to disgorge hundreds of mostly African-American men who, over the last few decades, we wrongly convicted of violent crimes. This is what it's like to spend nearly thirty years in prison for something you didn't do. This is what it's like to spend nearly thirty years as someone you aren't. And for Ray Towler, this is what it's like to be free." Via. [more inside]
posted by zarq on Feb 25, 2011 - 18 comments

"Such screenings are common in Britain, with more than 100 carried out in the last five years." You know, guns and lawyers and creationists notwithstanding, sometimes I'm really glad I live in the US and not in places that don't have a Bill of Rights.

A mass genetic screening like this would be a direct violation of the Fourth Amendment:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

While genetic testing is permitted here, it can only be done on a suspect when there's reasonable cause to believe that that particular suspect is guilty of the crime. It requires a search warrant.

And that, in my opinion, is how it should be.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Apr 8, 2000 - 5 comments