Van Hollen's Wrong

Sykes performed a public service by interviewing AG Van Hollen.



This is a transcription of part of that interview:



VanH: "....you cannot blame AG Doyle...or AG Lautenschlager for this concern, because it wasn't the job of the DOJ to collect these samples.



I disagree.

It IS the fact that the AG's office is not responsible for collection of the samples.

However, the AG's office IS responsible for establishing, maintaining, and enforcing systems and procedures which produce valid results: embedding DNA samples of a particular class of convicts in a database.

While Doyle, Lautenschaeger, and Van Hollen may not have THOUGHT of this, "valid results" must also foot against criminal convictions; that is, if 1,000 people/year are convicted of offenses which require DNA samples, the AG's office should receive 1,000 samples/year of DNA.

But the AGs named above did not do so. They chose, instead, to ignore the obvious because "it's not our job" to compare the number of convictions v. the number of samples.

I do not argue that the AG's office should be perfect, any more than that DoC should be perfect. Some mistakes will happen now and then. But to "notmyjob" what is as plain as a sunrise is simply unacceptable.