New rule on DNA samples criticized

WASHINGTON — Immigration detainees and others arrested for federal crimes will be forced to provide DNA samples beginning in January under new rules issued by the Justice Department this week, raising the ire of immigrant-rights and other groups.

Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl, of Arizona, author of a 2005 law that authorized the department to include pre-conviction DNA samples in its national database, said the change will help prevent violent crimes by deportees who return illegally or those who go on to commit heinous acts while in the community pending prosecution for earlier offenses.

The government now collects DNA samples only from those convicted of federal crimes. More than 6.2 million DNA analyses have been added to the national database since its creation.

The new rules will allow federal agents to take DNA samples at the time of arrest, rather than waiting for a conviction. They take effect Jan. 9.

Immigration lawyers and other groups condemned the new rules, saying they would violate an individual's rights without necessarily solving any more crimes.

University of California, Davis, law school dean Kevin Johnson said the rules are likely to be challenged in court because they violate the privacy rights of people who have not been convicted of a crime.

Board's decisions

favor Franken

Democrat Al Franken won a pair of victories Friday before the Minnesota board overseeing the Senate recount, including a decision that up to 1,500 incorrectly rejected absentee ballots should be included.

The board also opted to recommend use of Election Night results in a Franken-leaning Minneapolis precinct where 133 ballots were lost, a decision that could have cost him 46 votes if it had gone the other way.

Franken had fought especially hard to include the absentees as he tries to overtake Republican Sen. Norm Coleman in the drawn-out recount. Coleman's campaign lawyers said they would go to court over the absentee-ballot ruling.

With all precincts recounted, Coleman has a 188-vote edge over Franken, down slightly from his 215-vote lead entering the recount.

But there's a long way to go. That margin doesn't include the absentees. Nor does it include any of the 6,655 ballot challenges the two campaigns filed during the recount. Both sides have withdrawn hundreds but the state Canvassing Board will tackle some 3,450 starting Tuesday.

D.C. suspends

Stevens' law license

Convicted Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has temporarily lost his license to practice law in the District of Columbia, a decision that could become permanent after further proceedings.

Stevens' case now goes to the District's Board on Professional Responsibility, which can reprimand Stevens or ask the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to disbar him.

The chief judge of that court issued the temporary suspension order Thursday.

Stevens, 85, lost his bid for re-election. The Senate's longest-serving Republican was convicted on seven counts of lying on Senate financial-disclosure documents to hide hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and home renovations.

The conviction triggered the procedure against Stevens, who has the right to contest the action.

Seattle Times news services