1 post tagged “dna”

As of 0-dark-30 this morning, Kevin Lee Poulsen's THREAT LEVEL blog is reporting that I've apparently won my bid to keep my blood to myself.

In a court filing 13 months ago, federal prosecutors (in conjunction with the U.S. Probation Dept) had filed a probation violation petition with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, a judicial district which I happen to call home. The violation alleged that I had committed new crimes while on supervision by failing to comply with the lawful directives of my assigned U.S. probation officer.

These directives included mandatory submission of a DNA sample to the FBI. Presumably speaking from within their heavily armed compound, this federalist group asserted that they had no means at their disposal to process any sample other than blood, countless agonizingly blue-lit seasons of CSI notwithstanding.

I asked myself -- what would that level 90 jurist Anton Scalia do? Make sure that life imitated the tee-vee, of course. If the FBI couldn't process blood, surely it was only due to lack of good screenwriters.

If you, constant reader (of all two of my previous posts), can forgive me for waxing serious for just a graf or two, this posed a real issue for me. When I left federal court in 2004 following my sentencing, I had affirmed that I never wanted to walk in the doors of a courthouse as a defendant again. I've never been one to hit others over the head with my religious beliefs. I think faith is an intensely personal subject. I dislike evangelists. But the .us .gov had brought this issue to my doorstep, not vice-versa.

And as I stood in the probation office, watching the waiting phlebotomist call out subjects one by one, I knew that if I stood by and complied against the better judgment of my conscience, I'd regret it longer than any court case could last.

From there, it took 13 months for the judicial system to accomplish something that basically could
have been done in five minutes & a handshake. I knew from the get-go that some people might think my argument was frivolous, goofy, maybe even a bit Heckenkampy. Nevertheless, it was an argument I had no compunctions about making.

Now, 13 months after the violation petition, three years after my sentencing, and five years after my original offense, it looks like my trek through the judicial process is over.

Once again, life is full of possibilities.