根据加里弗尼亚法庭的近日出台的法律，DNA档案可以作为逮捕犯罪嫌疑人的证据。

　　在2000年8月份，发生了一宗性骚扰事件，律师一直没找到犯罪证据。离开庭仅有几天的时间了。萨克拉曼多市的律师，靠着在案发当场发现的DNA档案将犯罪嫌疑人送上了法庭。一个月以后，检举人在罪犯的基因数据库中找到了相同的基因。

　　据萨克拉曼多高级法院的有关人士透露，犯罪嫌疑人的律师辩称证据是不符合宪法的，因为它不能证明犯罪嫌疑人的姓名。但是法官裁定：证据是有效的，而检举人不受法律的限制。这个案件引起了人们很大的兴趣。

　　萨克拉曼多的律师代表Laurie Earl说：此案件最后的裁定对于加利福尼亚未来案件的审理没有什么影响。当1月1日，国家立法机关颁布法令：在性骚扰案件中，DNA证据有效的。但这项法律是存在局限性的，因为它没有规定找到DNA证据的时间。

　　其他国家的律师也关注此案，因为这和以前一起John Doe的案子有关。Norm Gahn 说，密尔沃基的检举人在1994年时就找到了John Doe的基因证据。这项法律可能会让我们翻案

原文：

　　A DNA profile is all you need to identify a suspected criminal on an arrest warrant, according to a recent California court ruling.

　　In August of 2000, with only days left before the statute of limitations ran out on an unsolved sexual assault, district attorneys in Sacramento County filed a warrant for the arrest of a suspect identified only by a DNA profile obtained from the crime scene. One month later, prosecutors found a match in a DNA databank of convicted felons; they arrested Paul Robinson, the first suspect to be arrested on such a warrant.

　　In a 23 February hearing in Sacramento Superior Court, Robinson's attorney argued that the warrant was unconstitutional because it did not identify the suspect by name. But the judge ruled that the warrant was valid, and that prosecutors were therefore not constrained by the statute of limitations. The defense is appealing.

　　The decision will have little impact on future cases in California, says Sacramento deputy district attorney Laurie Earl: As of 1 January the state legislature extended the statute of limitations on sexual assault cases in which only DNA evidence is available, putting no limit on the amount of time allowed to find who it belongs to.

　　But district attorneys in other states will be watching the case closely as a precedent for their own John Doe warrants, says Norm Gahn, a Milwaukee prosecutor who in 1994 filed the first John Doe warrant based solely on DNA. The ruling will allow them to "breathe life" into cases that would otherwise be closed because of statutes of limitations, he says. 。

摘自 sciencemag.