A serial killer linked to 10 murders in South Central LA and Inglewood over nearly 20 years resurfaced last year to claim another victim, according to the LAPD.

The latest murder, which took place early last year, was tied by DNA evidence to the others. LAPD Detective Dennis Kilcoyne said “The day those tests came in, we realized we had a serial killer on our hands who has been active for 23 years”. Kilcoyne heads a task force of 7 detectives whose mission it is to solve the murders.

All of the victims, except for one black men, have been young black women who the killer sexually abused. The serial killer left most of the bodies in allies along Western Ave. in South LA.

Detectives theorize that most of the women were working as prostitutes when they were killed. In the light of the new information that shows the killer is still active, Kilcoyne and his team are retracing footsteps and trying to pick up on cold leads in hopes that they might find their man. The detectives have started examining nearly 3 dozen cases that are smiliar to the serial killer’s gunshot murders.

THE ROLE OF DNA TESTING

There is an interesting legal aspect to this case. LAPD has not been able to search “DNA banks” in the criminal database to find one of his close relatives, which could, obviously, provide them with a lead. The “familial searches” are seen by many to be an invasion of privacy and would require permission from the State Attorney General, whose office has not yet said whether he would approve such a search.

DNA testing can be a slippery slope. There are many angles to consider.

Gina Tenny

The 1985 murder of Gina Tenny, a 19-year-old college student from Ohio, was solved using DNA testing last year. At the time of her murder, police believed a man named Bennie Lee strangled and killed the young woman, but couldn’t prove it. Nobody was convicted in connection with the crime.

The Tenny case sat cold for over 20 years, until Ohio officials started a DNA database program for cold cases. Bennie Adams, the very person they suspected in 1985 was proved, through DNA evidence, to be Gina’s killer.

Even more disturbing than the fact that Adams “walked” in the first place: the following year, in 1986, Adams was convicted in the kidnapping, rape, and robbery of another Ohio woman. He was released from prison in 2004 after serving 18 years on those charges.

In October of last year, Adams, a registered sex offender, was finally arrested and charged with the murder of Gina Tenny.

PEOPLE FREED BECAUSE OF DNA TESTING

Every coin has two sides, and in the case of DNA testing, the flip side is that numerous people have been freed after serving time for crimes that weren’t theirs.

David Lee Scott

David Scott, an Indiana man, served more than 23 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

In 1984, when Scott was just 17, he was charged with murder and served over 23 years in prison. His family begged for years to have DNA testing done in his case, always maintaining his innocence. Last year, when DNA testing finally proved that Scott was innocent, he was freed.

Kevin Mark Weeks of Kentucky was proven  to be the killer.  His crime? The bludgeoning to death of an 89-year-old woman with a hydraulic jack.

Links you should check out:

The Innocence Project is a group of law students that work towards helping get DNA tests for people that claim to be innocent of the crimes they are charged with. From their website:

Most of our clients are poor, forgotten, and have used up all legal avenues for relief. The hope they all have is that biological evidence from their cases still exists and can be subjected to DNA testing. All Innocence Project clients go through an extensive screening process to determine whether or not DNA testing of evidence could prove their claims of innocence. Thousands currently await our evaluation of their cases.

The ACLU offers several opinions on DNA testing. From the website:

State and Federal DNA databanks are expanding at an alarming rate. A crime prevention tool that was originally intended only to track the most dangerous convicted felons, police departments and other law enforcement agencies across the country have begun collecting and permanently storing DNA from arrestees and other innocent persons. This trend not only represents a grave threat to privacy and the 4th Amendment, but it also turns the legal notion that a person is “innocent until proven guilty” on its head.

Get informed! There are a lot of other resources out there. I’d love to hear what you think about DNA databases.