welcome
CNN

CNN

US Politics

US Politics

How a controversial type of warrant helped convict a former Arkansas police chief of a decades-old rape

CNN
Summary
Nutrition label

82% Informative

Grant Hardin , who escaped from prison Sunday , pleaded guilty to first -degree murder for the death of James Appleton .

A John Doe DNA warrant uses DNA recovered from a scene to help identify a suspect not known by name.

This type of warrant keeps open cases that might have already hit a statute of limitations.

Legal experts argue that DNA is not infallible, and this practice has potential to violate the rights of suspects.

In 2004 , the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Board of Directors adopted a resolution against the warrants.

They argue that many factors could play into the reliability of DNA samples, including degradation over time, errors in collection and issues in storage.

CNN has reached out to the organization to inquire if they still hold this position two decades later .

VR Score

82

Informative language

79

Neutral language

79

Article tone

semi-formal

Language

English

Language complexity

51

Offensive language

likely offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

not detected

Known propaganda techniques

not detected

Time-value

short-lived

Affiliate links

no affiliate links