BOSTON (Reuters) - Civil rights advocates Monday urged U.S. law enforcement officials trying to solve a 3-year-old murder case to stop asking for DNA samples from male residents of a Cape Cod community.
Police in Truro, Massachusetts, are seeking genetic thumbprints from nearly 800 men who live in the quiet seaside hamlet hopes of solving the murder of Christa Worthington, a fashion writer.
Worthington's body was discovered Jan. 6, 2002, at her Truro home with her 2-year-old toddler, Ava, at her side. A $25,000 reward has so far failed to yield her killer.
In a bid to jump-start the investigation, police have begun asking Truro's male residents to voluntarily produce DNA samples -- collected by swabbing inside the mouth -- to help find a match for the semen that was found on Worthington's body.
The New York Times reported Monday that police are approaching men in public with the request, and have announced that they will closely watch those who refuse. Authorities also say they may expand the drive to neighboring communities, the Times said.
"This is a particularly insidious form of coercion because it attaches a penalty to the assertion of one's constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches," Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) of Massachusetts, said in a statement.
"There are many legitimate privacy reasons why an innocent person may not agree to a DNA test."
In a letter to local prosecutors and police, Rose's group urged a halt to the "DNA dragnet," calling it a "serious intrusion" on personal privacy.
The letter raised questions about the possibility that samples may be entered into a state or federal DNA database without donors' knowledge or consent and questioned whether the effort would be worth the cost, which it estimated at $80,000.
Moreover, the letter cited a University of Nebraska study released last year that concluded that DNA sweeps of possible criminal suspects are "extremely unproductive."
Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe dismissed the ACLU's concerns.
"I don't tell the ACLU what to do and I don't expect them to tell us what's appropriate in a homicide investigation," he said. He declined to comment further on the investigation.
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