News Releases
NEWS ADVISORY - DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE HELPS WITH “COLD CASES” IN GEORGIA
April 30, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
David E. Nahmias, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia and the United States Department of Justice announce that the District Attorney's Office in Fulton County, Georgia will receive $714,150 from the Department of Justice to help solve old, unsolved "cold" cases and to identify the missing using DNA evidence. Earlier today in Washington D.C., Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey announced $14.2 million to go to 38 jurisdictions nationwide at the first-ever Department of Justice conference on the missing persons and unidentified dead, "National Strategy Meeting: Identifying the Missing."
The grants are part of the President's DNA initiative, Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology, a five-year, more than $1 billion effort: to eliminate casework and the convicted offender backlog; to improve crime lab capacity; to provide DNA training; to provide for post-conviction DNA testing; and to conduct testing to identify missing persons. Last fall, the Department of Justice awarded $95 million in DNA grants nationwide.
United States Attorney David E. Nahmias said of the Justice Department's effort, "Many families have waited years to learn what may have happened to a loved one or to see justice done for the injury to or death of a loved one. This initiative will bring long delayed justice to many of these families."
The promise of DNA to help solve cold cases and to identify the missing and deceased is endless. On average, over 100,000 missing persons are listed in the National Crime Information System (NCIC), the national, computerized index of criminal justice information. Over 45,000 of those have a last known contact of over a year ago and just 50 of the missing persons in the NCIC have their DNA information listed. Of the 5,800 unidentified dead that are listed in the NCIC, only 33 of these have their DNA information entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a database that enables federal, state, and local crime labs to exchange and compare DNA profiles electronically, thereby linking crimes to each other and to convicted offenders. However, there are an additional 244 DNA profiles of unidentified human remains in CODIS that are not recorded in NCIC.
According to a study funded by the National Institute of Justice, the research, development and evaluation arm of the Department of Justice, researchers estimate that biological evidence either still in the possession of local law enforcement or backlogged at forensic crime laboratories is estimated to be 542,700. With these grants, the Departmemt of Justice has made sure that local jurisdictions, which often have the greatest DNA backlogs, are directly awarded DNA money.
For further information and details, please contact Pete Pierce, Deputy Director of Public Affairs, Office of Communications, Office of Justice Programs at (202) 616-5336. The Internet address for the HomePage for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia iswww.usdoj.gov/usao/gan.