Dallas DA Reviews Old Cases and Frees Prisoners

Dallas Prosecutor Craig Watkins

The Wall Street Journal – DALLAS — Craig Watkins may be the only prosecutor in America who is making his name getting people out of prison.

As district attorney of Dallas County, Mr. Watkins is using DNA evidence to investigate more than 400 guilty verdicts notched up by his predecessors. His office’s Conviction Integrity Unit, launched last year for this purpose, has so far cleared six men wrongly convicted of rape, murder or robbery.

In the past two decades, more than 200 convicts nationwide have been freed thanks in part to DNA testing. The tests involve taking biological material such as blood from the person convicted and comparing it to a sample left at the crime scene. These efforts are usually spearheaded by defense lawyers, not prosecutors.

Mr. Watkins, who became the first African American district attorney in Texas when he was elected in 2006, said in a recent interview that he has been accused of being “a criminal-loving DA, a hug-a-thug DA.” But he says such criticism of him and his office misses the point: “We have the constitutional obligation to seek justice.”

Each exoneration has pushed Mr. Watkins further into the spotlight. He has been interviewed by television crews from around the globe. The Democratic party in Texas considers him a rising star, though Mr. Watkins says he hasn’t made any decisions about running for statewide office.

But the exonerations have also brought intense scrutiny of the 40-year-old Mr. Watkins, who spent most of his career as a small-time defense lawyer. Critics, including some fellow prosecutors, say he seems too eager to besmirch his predecessors’ reputations for the sake of a little publicity. They note that politically, these cases are easy targets: None of them were tried by him.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122669736692929339.html

Spit parties: Will your lover get cancer or give birth to cyclops?

Medicine has advanced – but after you take the test – what happens to the information that is collected? This raises interesting medical privacy issues, especially since the participants cannot opt out of anonymous sharing of the results for “research purposes.” Please Read on. – MT

The New York Times – IT was a funny thing to be doing in a cocktail dress.

Debra Netschert, a financial analyst, was sitting next to her husband, K. C. Dustin, an equities salesman, and spitting into a test tube at a party last week in Chelsea to promote a DNA testing company.

As a soundtrack that included “Whole Lotta Love” blasted, the couple were submitting samples for tests that could reveal disturbing news, like his propensity to develop throat cancer or the chances of her having pregnancy complications.

But Ms. Netschert adopted the party mood, focusing, at first, on the less consequential details about her heredity. “I want to figure out why I have freckles,” she said.

It was taking a few minutes to fill the tube with the required amount of saliva, so Ms. Netschert had a dry-mouthed moment to consider what the couple might do if her husband turned out to be carrying a gene that could doom his offspring.

“Then maybe we’ll adopt instead,” she said. “Really.”

Some people might fear a world where widespread DNA testing would remove the mysteries of their futures or even strip them of privacy. But the testing company 23andMe, which was the host of what it billed as a “spit party” in the middle of New York Fashion Week, filled with celebrities, wants people to think of their genomes as a basis for social networking. As in: You are invited to join the group Slow Caffeine Metabolizers.

Co-founded by Anne Wojcicki, the wife of a founder of Google, the company, which has token financial backing from Harvey Weinstein and Wendi Murdoch, hopes to make spitting into a test tube as stylish as ordering a ginger martini.

“It’s fun to learn about your own genome,” the 23andMe Web site says.

Typically, customers register and pay online — the price of a test was cut by nearly two-thirds to $399 last week — and are sent a testing kit. A customer spits into a tube, mails it in, and about a month later receives results via a Web account. The information on 89 genetic markers include details of customers’ ancestry as well as what current research suggests are proclivites to certain diseases and other genetic traits like one’s appetite for sugar and responsiveness to antidepressants.

Customers have been able to share their results with whomever they choose online, or keep the information private, since shortly after the company began offering the tests in November. A new feature allows customers to post DNA-related questions in a community forum.

A select group, which included family and friends of the owners, began using the forum in recent weeks, and some customers have begun networking with others who share their traits, such as lacking a sense of smell. Others are posting notices, seeking those who share a mutation in the gene called ACTN3, which is associated with muscle response, wondering if their fellows share a lack of musical talent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/fashion/14spit.html?ex=1379044800&en=b99ab98bac5bad10&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink