[September 18, 2009] EDITORIAL: Felons' missing DNA is scandalous Tweet Sep 18, 2009 (La Crosse Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- While an investigation of how 12,000 felons could be missing from Wisconsin's DNA registry continues, preliminary results aren't terribly reassuring. The report of an administrator in the state Department of Justice's Division of Law Enforcement offered the 12,000 estimate after looking into the case of accused serial killer Walter E. Ellis. The State Crime Laboratory noticed, before Ellis' release from prison, that a DNA sample purportedly from Ellis matched that of someone else in the state database. But in the two months between that discovery and Ellis' release from Oshkosh Correc-tional Institution on July 3, 2001, Ellis was not required to provide a legitimate DNA sample. The volume of DNA samples being collected, shipped out for profiling and received back at the state crime lab for insertion into the DNA database was enormous at the time, according to the chief of the lab, who said he wasn't surprised "that someone slipped through." What's alarming is that such "slippage" over the years has resulted in a 10 percent shortfall in the DNA database that police and prosecutors rely on to solve crimes and prosecute their perpetrators. Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen may have been prudent in his unwillingness to hold anyone accountable prematurely for the lapses in communication and procedure that have resulted in these convicted felons avoiding becoming part of the database. And the preliminary investigation noted that procedures have changed since 2001 -- for the better, we hope -- and that the next, more intensive phase of the investigation into the fiasco will review current processes to ensure lapses like that in the Ellis case won't happen again. But not everyone was as dispassionate as Van Hollen about the disturbing news of the missing DNA. "This isn't a mistake. This is an abomination," Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr. told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Let's go ask the victims of unsolved sexual assaults or other crimes if they feel anybody needs to be held accountable." It's conceivable one of the victims in the Ellis case could be alive today had the state had Ellis' DNA on file. While Van Hollen apparently felt compelled to note that the the Ellis mess happened "before my watch," the 12,000 missing DNA samples are now Van Hollen's problem, and we trust he'll have the full support of a former attorney general, Gov. Jim Doyle, in pursuing as many of the missing samples as possible and making any changes needed to ensure the state of Wisconsin can manage better than 90 percent effectiveness in getting DNA samples from the state's felons. To see more of the La Crosse Tribune or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.lacrossetribune.com/. Copyright (c) 2009, La Crosse Tribune, Wis. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]