http://digbig.com/4phdw
Richard Willing
"In a March 2003 speech arguing for $1 billion in new spending on DNA-based crime fighting, then-attorney general John Ashcroft singled out the FBI's DNA database for its many successes. In Virginia, for example, he said authorities "have been able to solve 90 homicides and 196 non-homicide sexual assaults" by matching the DNA left at crime scenes to the DNA of prior offenders. What Ashcroft didn't explain was that a DNA match —a crime "solved" by the FBI's database — does not mean that an arrest was made, that a criminal was prosecuted or even that detectives considered a case closed. Just how many DNA matches lead to an arrest isn't known; no government agency keeps track. But a USA TODAY investigation found almost three dozen cases during the past five years — including a rape in Virginia — in which investigators failed to pursue potential suspects whose DNA matched evidence found at crime scenes."
