{"id":668,"date":"2020-03-02T16:37:06","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T16:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tyralawoffice.com\/blog\/?p=668"},"modified":"2020-03-02T16:37:07","modified_gmt":"2020-03-02T16:37:07","slug":"texas-criminal-defense-attorney-says-a-recently-passed-state-law-expands-use-of-dna-evidence-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tyralawoffice.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/02\/texas-criminal-defense-attorney-says-a-recently-passed-state-law-expands-use-of-dna-evidence-in-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Says a Recently Passed State Law Expands Use of DNA Evidence in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>DNA evidence can\nprovide valuable information about a crime, including information about who may\nhave been involved in the crime. DNA evidence has the potential to help\nauthorities identify potential suspects more accurately than they would be able\nto identify them by relying exclusively on other types of evidence. A Texas law\npassed last year aims to increase the amount of DNA evidence available to\ninvestigators by requiring individuals who are arrested for certain felonies to\nprovide DNA samples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Krystal Jean Baker\nAct became law last June. The law is named for a young woman who was abducted,\nsexually assaulted, and killed in 1996. Although authorities collected DNA\nevidence around the time of Krystal&#8217;s death, they were not able to solve the\ncase. In 2010, a man named Kevin Smith was arrested for a drug-related offense\nin Louisiana. At the time of his arrest, his DNA was sampled and entered into\nthe national database. That sample linked Smith to the Baker case, and Kevin\nSmith pled guilty to the murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of the felony\noffenses that now require arrestees to provide a DNA sample under the Krystal\nJean Baker Act are human trafficking, robbery, sexual assault, prostitution,\ncapital murder, kidnapping, and aggravated assault. The law differs from some\nDNA sample regulations in that a defendant need only be arrested before they\nare required to provide a DNA sample via cheek swabs when they are booked into\njail. No conviction is required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When DNA samples are\ncollected according to the Act, they are entered into a national database\ncalled CODIS, the Combined DNA Index System. Since the law was passed, it has\nenabled authorities to resolve cases that had gone cold. There are numerous\nreports of cases in Texas and elsewhere that have been resolved since the passage\nof the Krystal Jean Baker Act. For example, a recent arrest for sexual assault\nled to the offender&#8217;s DNA being linked to a 2019 sexual assault that had not\nyet been solved. A September 2019 arrest for theft led to the resolution of a\nhomicide that happened in 2011. One arrest made in connection with a recent\nsexual assault led to the resolution of two other sexual assault cases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Defendants who are\nfacing charges for crimes they did not commit stand to benefit from the Krystal\nJean Baker Act. Often, people focus on DNA evidence as a way to identify guilty\nparties. It is crucial that we also view DNA evidence as a way to avoid\nincriminating the wrong people. Many people who commit crimes are repeat\noffenders. As arrests for recent crimes garner additional DNA samples for the\nCODIS database, authorities have more opportunities to connect the correct\nperson with each offense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have been charged with a crime, your freedom is at stake. Fortunately, you do not have to defend your freedom on your own. A Texas criminal defense attorney is a powerful ally who can help you protect what is most important to you. To learn more about how a <a href=\"http:\/\/barrettlawpllc.com\">Texas Criminal Defense Attorney<\/a> can help you, call Attorney Alex Tyra today. Call us today, at (903) 753-7499, or fill out a convenient online contact form on our website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DNA evidence can provide valuable information about a crime, including information about who may have been involved in the crime. DNA evidence has the potential to help authorities identify potential suspects more accurately than they would be able to identify them by relying exclusively on other types of evidence. A Texas law passed last year [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[47],"class_list":["post-668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-defense","tag-texas-criminal-defense-attorney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyralawoffice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyralawoffice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyralawoffice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyralawoffice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyralawoffice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tyralawoffice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":669,"href":"https:\/\/tyralawoffice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions\/669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyralawoffice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyralawoffice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyralawoffice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}