JusticeAction ::: A Case Against DNA

AN INTRODUCTION:
Forensic DNA testing - technology trumps due process

The decade and a half following the introduction of forensic DNA profiling has seen revolutionary changes in the way crime is investigated and tried in industrialised countries. It has also seen unprecedented erosion of privacy and civil rights with police able to order a wide range of citizens to submit to the collection, testing and databasing of their DNA.

DNA technology has great potential to assist in the investigation of a wide range of offences, identifying the guilty, exonerating the innocent and solving what would once have been insoluble cases. However it is still just a technology and subject to all of the limitations in the skill and integrity of those who use it.

The Australian criminal justice system has a poor history of evaluating scientific evidence.

Lindy Chamberlain, Frederick McDermott, Edward Splatt, Emily Perry, Raymond Carol, Alexander McLeod-Lindsay, Fritz van Beelan and Graham Potter are just a few of the Australians who have been wrongfully imprisoned following the incompetent or dishonest evidence of forensic scientists. In 1922 Melbourne publican Colin Campbell Ross was sent to the gallows, thanks to the bogus hair matching evidence of forensic scientist Charles Price.

The introduction of forensic DNA testing in Australia has been accompanied by unrealistic claims of infallibility and the results which might be gained from its use. In every Australian jurisdiction legislation has been hurriedly introduced in order to build up huge DNA databases as soon as possible, with barely a thought given to standards, protocols, privacy or civil rights.

From the outset Justice Action has promoted informed public discussion of DNA technology and careful consideration of how it is to be introduced. Instead we have been offered Wee Waa style PR exercises and claims that '80% of outstanding cases will be solved'.

Justice Action
PO Box 386 Broadway NSW Australia 2007.
Ph: 61-2-9281-5100. Fax: 61-2-9281-5303
Email: justiceaction@justiceaction.org.au

DNA Testing documents
All the documents (in .PDF) associated with the campaign

All the documents, submissions and associated files to the JusticeAction DNA Testing Campaign can be found by following this link to our Document Index. The links below will take you to some of the critical issues presented in the campaign.

Police to destroy ACT inmates' DNA
The Canberra Times
March 13, 2001, Tuesday EditionBy: Danielle Cronin

NSW police vowed to destroy any DNA samples mistakenly taken from ACT offenders in NSW jails.

An ACT Government spokesman said the ACT and NSW Governments were yet to sign an agreement on DNA testing, which meant NSW police could not compel about 130 prisoners, convicted in the ACT but serving their sentences across the border, to supply a mouth swab or hair sample.

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Justice Action submission
Australian Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee Inquiry into the Commonwealth Crimes Amendment (Forensic Procedures) Bill 2000

19 Nov 2000

Justice Action was one of the few community organisations who learned of the inquiry in time to make a rushed submission. As a result, we were the only group called to give evidence before the inquiry other than police, bureaucrats and forensic scientists who were promoting the bill.

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Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Bill 2000
- Amendment proposals
08 July 2000

Suggestions made by Justice Action for amendments to the Crimes
(Forensic Procedures) Bill 2000.

Although several of these amendments were put forward by Legislative Council crossbenchers, all but one failed to gain support from the ALP or Coalition and were defeated.

The successful amendment became Section 123 of the Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Act; requiring:

1) The Committee of the Legislative Council established under the name of the "Standing Committee on Law and Justice" is to inquire into and report on the operation of this Act and the regulations.
2) The report is to be tabled in the Legislative Council as soon as possible after the end of the period of 18 months from the date of assent to this Act.
3) Without limiting the matters that the Committee may take into account for the purposes of its enquiry and report, it may take into account the following:

(a) any relevant provisions of the Model Forensic Procedures Bill 1999 set out in Appendix 3 of the Discussion paper dated May 1999 prepared by the Model Criminal Code Officers Committee or of any State, Commonwealth or other law,
(b) the wider social and legal implications of use of information
obtained from matching of DNA profiles derived from forensic material,
(c) the effectiveness of matching of DNA profiles as an investigative tool,
(d) the reliability of the matching of DNA profiles for the purposes of forensic identification.

4) The Committee may make recommendations in its report about amendments that might appropriately be made to the Act to enhance its operation and provide further safeguards for the privacy and civil liberty of persons on whom forensic procedures are carried out, or proposed to be carried out, under the Act. 5) The Committee is to furnish a copy of the report to the Ombudsman for consideration.

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Legislation Alert -
Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Bill 2000
5 June 2000

Justice Action legislation alert informing NSW parliamentarians of some of the shortcomings of the Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Bill.

Distributed to Legislative Councillors shortly before the Bill was passed into law, following an amendment requiring it to be referred to the Standing Committee on Law and Justice for public inquiry.

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The Brave New World of Big Brother Bob
30 May 2000

Justice Action article warning of the imminent introduction of the Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Act. Previously published in the 'Chippo News'.

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DNA and Criminal Justice
February 2000

Originally prepared as a briefing paper for NSW Parliamentary crossbenchers.

A general discussion of forensic DNA testing and recommendations for the introduction of widespread DNA testing and databasing in Australia.

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Michael Strutt - ex-researcher for Justice Action has created his own site detailing his research; it can be found at: http://home.iprimus.com.au/dna_info/dna