Media Articles:

Maryland's DNA Databank

by Stephen B. Mercer and William G. McLain

Nov/Dec 2004
Volume XXXVII Number 6

Maryland Bar Journal Website

Screen Savers

Can Grand Old Theaters survive in the age of multiplex?
Featuring Stephen Mercer
By Dan Gilgoff

U.S. News & World Report Magazine

Media

Sixty Minutes aired a piece titled "A Not So Perfect Match" (Lesley Stahl, correspondent; Shari Finkelstein, Producer; Megan Frank, Assistant Producer) Sunday evening, April 1, 2007. In the segment, Stephen B. Mercer, Esq., was interviewed concerning the privacy and civil rights implications of "near-match" or "familial searching" of convicted felon DNA databases. When there is a close match between DNA collected at a crime scene and a convicted offender profile in the DNA database, you know the person in the database didn't commit the crime, but the near match may suggest that a family member did. The Sixty Minutes story covers the controversy surrounding this new development in DNA databasing and its implications on the rights of all Americans.

April 2008

Familial Searching of DNA Databases: In a comprehensive article, the Washington Post reports on the emerging trend of searching DNA databases to identify family members as possible suspects, and the arguments for and against such an investigative technique. See Ellen Nakashima, From DNA of Family, a Tool to Make Arrests, The Washington Post (April 20, 2008). Stephen B. Mercer is quoted regarding the dual privacy concerns of persons becoming genetic informants on their family members, and innocent family members themselves coming under lifelong genetic surveillance.
Read the full story.

February 2008

Baltimore Exaiminer reports, that “By enacting this legislation, the majority of African Americans will either be directly or indirectly in the database,” said Stephen Mercer, a Rockville lawyer. Read the full story.

Baltimore Sun reports O'Malley Urges DNA Collection, Read the full story.

Some decry forced DNA tests in violent-crime arrests.
Defense attorneys, civil rights and civil liberties groups lined up again this week to testify against bills calling for suspects arrested in violent crimes to submit to DNA tests. Click to read story.

January 2008

On January 24, 2008, Stephen B. Mercer, Esq., testifies before the House Judiciary Committee in opposition to the Governor's proposed DNA database expansion bill. Click to read story.