Constitutional Law
Court Strikes Down UK Law Allowing DNA Database of Innocent
Europe’s top human rights court has struck down a British law that allowed police to keep DNA profiles of those who were never convicted of a crime.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled the law violates the right to a private life, the Associated Press reports. The decision could force the destruction of more than 850,000 DNA samples taken from those who were arrested but never convicted, according to AP. The Times Online puts the number of DNA and fingerprint samples at 1.6 million.
Britain must destroy the samples by March 1 or persuade the court why some of them should be kept.
