Golden State Killer allegedly now in custody

[Nrdsb4]

I actually do believe that techmom99’s contentions will be raised by the suspect’s lawyers quite vigorously, but I personally do not believe they will succeed. I’m not a lawyer, though, so anything is possible. Privacy advocates will of course lobby for laws that will catch up to technology. Again, who knows if they will prevail?

Joel Winston, a Pennsylvania lawyer who specializes in data privacy law, said GEDmatch’s terms could give a defense lawyer an opening to get the evidence against DeAngelo tossed out of court. If law enforcement officials didn’t have the authority to upload crime-scene DNA information to GEDmatch, that could taint the computer match and all the subsequent evidence obtained as a result of the GEDmatch findings, under the so-called “fruit of the poisonous tree” doctrine, he said.

“That’s problematic,” Winston said. “It’s not their DNA.”

But Jennifer Mnookin, an evidence expert and dean of UCLA’s School of Law, said that even if law enforcement officials breached the website’s policies by uploading crime-scene DNA material, they likely didn’t violate DeAngelo’s constitutional rights.

“I doubt it would get tossed out of court on that basis,” she said.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article209987599.html