CINCINNATI (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that DNA taken from someone acquitted of a crime can be retained and used in subsequent investigations.
The justices said people don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy if a DNA sample taken from them during a criminal investigation is used in a separate investigation down the road.
The decision Thursday stems from an Ohio man who was acquitted of a 2005 rape but was later convicted of a 2007 murder.
Authorities had taken a DNA sample from Dajuan Emerson in the rape investigation.
Emerson was acquitted but the sample was retained and matched DNA taken at the crime scene of a Cleveland woman's 2007 murder.
Emerson had argued that the state violated his constitutional rights by keeping the sample.
