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| Officials call for changes in DNA collection |
| By pottsmerc.com |
| Published: 01/08/2010 |
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Calling the current practice of collecting DNA samples from convicted felons dangerous to the public, officials are urging the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to change its practice and policy in collecting the samples. The requests made by Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman and State Rep. Mike Vereb, R-150th, to the state Department of Corrections came just days after, and as a result of, an arrest in a 2007 murder of a Pottstown man, which was made possible because of DNA evidence. Officials believe a change in when DNA samples are collected could more quickly bring criminals to justice. In a letter sent by Ferman to the state corrections department, she references the recent arrest of Joseph Eli Moss, who is charged with the Feb. 7, 2007, beating and butcher knife murder of Edward Lee Sides of King Street, Pottstown. The arrest was announced by Ferman's office on Monday. "I am writing to share my belief that the current DOC practice and policy creates a danger to the public and respectfully request you change it," Ferman penned in the letter to Jeffrey A. Beard, secretary of the state Department of Corrections. "By failing to secure Moss' DNA sample at the earliest possible time, DOC allowed a killer to be released into the community." When law enforcement officials arrived at Sides' King Street residence the evening of Feb. 7, 2007, and found him lying behind his home, bloody and beaten, they immediately began what would become a murder investigation. Canvassing the community, police and county detectives collected evidence, including samples of Sides' blood found on a butcher knife and a bloody Timberland jacket that was stashed behind a trash can a short distance away. The jacket, investigators learned, was covered in both Sides' DNA, obtained from his blood on the jacket, as well as the DNA of another person. The owner of the unknown DNA, who officials allege is Moss, was not identified until August 2009, two months after Moss had been released from prison on parole for a June 2008 conviction on an unrelated felony offense. Ferman said while she's not able to confirm the actual collection date of Moss' DNA by Department of Corrections officials, she heard it didn't happen until March 2009, when the department was preparing to release Moss on parole. The delay in identifying Moss' DNA and, ultimately, his arrest, Ferman believes, is the result of the Department of Corrections' policy to delay the collection of DNA samples from convicted felons. Ferman said the change in policy is not only important to bring criminals to justice, but it's a matter of public safety. "The longer it takes for law enforcement to identify, arrest and prosecute violent offenders, the greater likelihood that a dangerous criminal can hurt others," she wrote in the letter to Beard. She explained that if Moss' DNA sample was taken in June 2008, when he entered the Department of Corrections system for the felony offense, he could have been arrested for Sides' murder "before he ever left prison soil." "Instead, a killer roamed freely for 10 weeks," she wrote. "In short, we are lucky that he did not kill again. Is this really a chance we have to take?" In his letter to the Department of Corrections, Vereb questioned why the department isn't following the state law that mandates when DNA samples should be taken. "A 2005 state law mandating DNA testing of those convicted of a felony offense states that the DNA sample should be taken 'upon intake to a prison, jail, juvenile detention facility or any other detention facility or institution,'" Vereb wrote. "Why, then, are samples being taken prior to release instead of upon intake?" Vereb, a former police officer, said he knows firsthand how a delay in solving a case causes frustration and pain for victims and their families, and exhausts law enforcement's manpower. "The bottom line is: A delay in DNA testing can lead to a delay in justice," Vereb wrote. Read More. |
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