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The Legal Aid Society launched a broadside Monday at the state’s familial DNA testing proposal, saying the move is an abuse of power.
In June, the State Commission on Forensic Science voted 9-2 to allow the technique to be used by law enforcement agencies across the state in violent felony and sex crime investigations.
The method allows investigators to identify suspects by checking genetic material of relatives who are already in the state’s DNA database. It can be used to both identify and eliminate people as suspects.
The move came after considerable pressure from pols, law enforcement agencies and the family of Karina Vetrano, who was slain in a Queens park while jogging in August 2016.
In a brief written by Legal Aid staff attorneys Allison Lewis and David Loftis, the organization argues that the measure should have gone through the Legislature.
"The Commission on Forensic Science is unfit to greenlight statewide familial search as it involves issues well beyond the expertise of the Commission, including racially discriminatory genetic surveillance and basic personal privacy,” Lewis said.
“It's an abuse...