Question

What was the ruling in Maryland v. King? What are your thoughts about this ruling?

Answer 1

Ans. Alonzo Jay King Jr. was arrested for first- and second-degree assault. The case was heard before the Supreme Court in February 2013, and a verdict was released four months later, in June 2013. As according to Maryland police protocol, the Maryland DNA Collection Act, a DNA sample was taken from King at the time of the arrest and entered into Maryland's database. It was matched to an unsolved rape case in 2003. While under arrest, but prior to conviction, King's DNA was collected and logged in Maryland's DNA database. That database matched King's DNA to a DNA sample from an unsolved rape case. This sample was the only evidence linking King to the rape. The trial judge denied King's motion to suppress the DNA evidence and he was convicted of first-degree rape and sentenced to life in prison.

King appealed the conviction, arguing that the MDCA was an unconstitutional infringement of his Fourth Amendment privilege against warrantless searches. The Court of Appeals of Maryland reversed, holding that the MDCA was unconstitutional. The court held that King's expectation of privacy was greater than Maryland's interest in using the DNA for identification purposes.

The ruling of this case shows how much law can bended as per one's own interest. The 4 judges who were against the DNA testing shows that a law can be used in both good and bad ways as per ap erson's own interest. While judges were just stating a fact were merely following in what they believed was right, they were still doing so in favor of an offender and not the victim.