STORY HIGHLIGHTS London (CNN) -- New DNA tests reveal Britain's long-lost King Richard III was blue-eyed and likely blond-haired, but they also raise intriguing questions over whether he -- and other monarchs before and since -- should have been on the throne at all. Experts researching the case of the "King in the car park" -- a set of remains dug up from beneath a parking lot in the central English city of Leicester in 2012 -- now say they are 99.999% positive that the bones are those of Richard III, who died at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. Genetic specialist Turi King, from the University of Leicester, said analysis of various genetic markers offered tantalizing clues to Richard III's appearance -- suggesting that he was not the dark-haired, steely-eyed monarch portrayed in well-known historical images. "[There are] genes that we know are involved in coding for hair and eye color ... The genetic evidence shows he had a 96% probability of having blue eyes, and a 77% probability of having blond hair, though this can darken with age." Tests suggest Richard III had blue eyes and -- at least as a child -- blond hair; this portrait is … Continue reading →

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- A California state appellate court has defied the U.S. Supreme Court with a ruling tossing out a law requiring DNA collection from everyone arrested for a felony. "The California DNA Act intrudes too quickly and too deeply into the privacy interests of arrestees," presiding justice J. Anthony Kline wrote for the three-judge panel of the First Appellate District Court of Appeal in San Francisco. The decision cited 2012 state statistics that 62 percent of those arrested for felonies who were not ultimately convictedalmost 20 percent of the total number of felony busts were never even charged with a crime. The decision contravenes a Supreme Court decision last year ruling that a similar Maryland DNA law was a valid form of police identification of suspects, like fingerprinting. The California panel cited the state constitution which declares "privacy" to be an "inalienable right" under a 1972 state law, the Privacy Initiative. The court noted: "The collection and indefinite storage of DNA samples is the epitome of the kind of stockpiling of personal and private information the Privacy Initiative meant to protect from unnecessary governmental intrusion." The California case, People v. Buza, involved a San Francisco man … Continue reading →

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) A California appeals court struck down a state law that requires the collection of DNA from anyone arrested on suspicion of committing a felony. The 1st District Court of Appeal said Wednesday that the state Constitution's ban on unreasonable search and seizure prohibited the DNA collection using a cheek swab. The law was approved by voters in 2004. "We conclude that the DNA Act ... unreasonably intrudes on such arrestees' expectation of privacy," Presiding Justice J. Anthony Kline said in a 3-0 ruling. There was no immediate order stopping police in California from continuing to collect DNA, and the appellate court's ruling could be appealed. Still, the ruling is important, said Julia Harumi Mass, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, which filed a brief in the case. "It's one of the first opinions to recognize that DNA analysis is fundamentally different from a fingerprint," Mass said. "Arrestee DNA collection raises serious privacy concerns." Supporters of the law say law enforcement's interest in solving cold cases, identifying crime suspects and even exonerating the wrongly accused outweigh privacy concerns raised by the forced DNA collections. The state Attorney General's office is reviewing … Continue reading →

In 2004, two young women were abducted at gunpoint while walking home near Boston at night. The crimes happened eight days apart, but the pattern was the same: The women were shoved into a car by two men, pistol-whipped, driven to a different location, and raped. While collecting her clothes, the second victim managed to grab the condom one of the men had worn; she hid it in her pocket, and turned it in as evidence. One of the two men involved pleaded guilty to the attacks in 2012. The other remained at large. Police had a suspect, but they couldnt pin the crime on him due to a twist of genetic fate: He had an identical twin brother, and DNA from the condom matched both siblings. But now, a decade after the assaults, scientists have developed a genetic test that can distinguish between identical twins, and it may be used in court for the first time in this case. The second suspect is 33-year-old Dwayne McNair. In September, McNair was arraigned on eight counts of aggravated rape and two counts of armed robbery, stemming from the two sexual assaults. Traditional forensic methods cant differentiate between DNA belonging to identical … Continue reading →