Arrest of the Golden State Killer

 Although they now have proof beyond doubt as to who the Golden State Killer is, police are tight-lipped about their method of tracking him (through one of the killer’s relative's DNA), and they are not saying which genealogy lab gave them their initial lead. These records are, no doubt, often inadvertently, made public by relatives who, through a common effort, are trying to track their ancestry, and openly discuss their efforts on Internet forums.  One can only imagine the hullabaloo forthcoming, especially from the DNA genealogy labs.  They make their living by tracking ancestry for their customers through the use of DNA.

However, I cannot see the police's method of obtaining their lead through use of a relative's DNA having a gigantic impact on the genealogy labs. A wanted killer is not likely to submit his DNA to them anyway.  However, if you have black sheep on the lam in your family, you might give the police a lead through your own DNA while you are trying to track your ancestry.  As for me, if I have a relative on the lam, I say lock him/her up. Giving the police a lead through my DNA submitted to a genealogy lab would not deter me from using such methods to track my ancestry. Anyway,  I already know who my relatives are back to the mid-1800s, and farther back than that does not really interest me.

When all is said and done, the police finally have their man, and his prosecution is undoubtedly going to cause some police procedural controversies far and wide.  James DeAngelo, the alleged Golden State Killer, is a former cop, a fact that investigators long suspected by his ability to cover up evidence, and by other clues.  He obviously knew all about investigative methods.  He never left fingerprints or other available evidence that he (at the time) knew of, when he began his crime spree; At the beginning of his serial rapes and murders, DNA was not yet available for use by the police―and he left plenty of it at the early crime scenes.

DeAngelo was tracked down by the discovery of DNA from a relative who sent it to a yet un-named genealogy lab. There is going to be a big argument in this trial as to whether DNA from a genealogy business is public information, and perhaps many other unprecedented issues are going to arise. If a relative publishes his/her information on a public forum used by a group of related people, I cannot see a problem.  It seems like it would be similar to eavesdropping a conversation, or finding an incriminating note on the Internet or in the dumpster. Hearsay information from eavesdropping might not be admissible evidence; it might be judged to be hearsay, but such information taken from a public Internet forum between relatives exchanging information might be different.

Illegally-obtained evidence can get the most dangerous criminals off the hook, and since this case is California-based, anything can happen.  A conviction is bound to be appealed under the Fourth Amendment.  The arrest and most of the crimes took place within the jurisdiction of the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals, the worst possible place to get justice.  This case could drag out far beyond 72-year-old, James De Angelo’s, remaining, expected life span, and the grim reaper might cheat society out of his paying the supreme penalty.  However, the proceedings should at least keep him in plenty of misery for the rest of his life.