Happy Wednesday and welcome back to another edition of Opening Argument, a reported column where I dig into tricky legal questions and unpack issues dividing appellate courts. Today, a look at DNA evidence and when it’s unlawful for police to store and search it.
Rape victims agree to have their bodies invaded for a second time to help catch their assailant—not to make it easier for police to arrest them later in life.
The San Francisco Police Department’s crime lab, however, has been storing the DNA collected from victims of sexual assault in a private database and searching through it ...