Am I My Brother's Keeper? Familial DNA Searches in the Twenty-First Century‪.‬

INTRODUCTION Over twenty-five years ago, British researcher Alec Jeffreys discovered DNA fingerprinting, (1) a technique used to identify the unique genetic material of an individual by analyzing sequences of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). (2) Today, DNA fingerprinting has expanded from a fledgling tool of law enforcement to a ubiquitous, valuable asset in criminal investigations and prosecutions. Correspondingly, criminal DNA databases have grown in size and function, ushering in a new advent of DNA searches. For example, "familial DNA searches" compare crime scene DNA evidence to offender profiles already in a DNA database, searching for a partial DNA match in the hopes that the perpetrator is a relative of an offender whose profile is already present in the database. (3) In July of 2010, California's use of familial DNA searches came to the forefront of the public eye with the arrest of Lonnie D. Franklin Jr., the alleged "Grim Sleeper" serial killer who may have been responsible for at least ten murders in the South Los Angeles area over a period of twenty-five years. (4)