Supreme Court Upholds DNA Testing After Arrests

5-4 decision

States can routinely collect DNA samples when people are arrested for a serious crime, the U.S. Supreme Court said, limiting privacy rights and giving police a powerful investigative tool for solving old crimes.

The justices, voting 5-4, reinstated Alonzo Jay King Jr.'s conviction for a 2003 Maryland rape, a crime police solved only by matching DNA collected from King when he was arrested on an unrelated assault charge six years later.