Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2003, $957,600)
Project Summary for 2003-DN-BX-K108
DNA evidence has revolutionized many aspects of the criminal justice system, but its use as an investigative tool has been largely untapped in the United States. As the United Kingdom has shown us, the real investigative power of DNA lies in its use in searching databases and linking crimes to their perpetrators. This project begins to afford the U.S. criminal justice community access to a convicted offender database populated with significant numbers of DNA profiles in order to solve crimes.
In October of 1998, the FBI's National DNA Index System (NDIS) became operational allowing States to exchange and compare DNA profiles electronically, thereby linking crimes to each other and to convicted offenders through the implementation of the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). With increasing demands being placed on States to expand their DNA database laws, a large backlog of convicted samples has been developed. This award supplies funds for the in-house STR analysis of Alabama's 25,000 backlogged convicted offender samples.
ca/ncf