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COMMENTARY: Lying to get DNA evidence from innocent people should not be tolerated

FLORIDA COURIER — Voluntarily submitted. That is the context for a second tragedy that has now unfolded. In October of 2018, Orlando police went to the home of Eleanor Holmes in Valdosta, Georgia. There the police approached Mrs. Holmes at her front gate and asked her if she would consent to providing a DNA cheek-swab so that police could identify a possible relative in Orlando who had been found dead many years earlier. That was a lie. Orlando police were actually looking for evidence to link Mrs. Holmes son to the murder of Christina Franke.

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The Fourth Amendment protects all private citizens; the innocent perhaps even more than those suspected of criminal activity. The taking of DNA from a person not suspected of a crime, by lying to that person, in order to obtain evidence against her son, was shocking behavior. (Photo: iStockphoto / NNPA)

By Leroy Pernell, Florida Courier

A horrible tragedy occurred in 2001 when 25-year-old Christina Franke was brutally murdered in her central Florida home. Without leads, the case remained unsolved for 17 years.

In 2018, Orlando police, using a relatively new technique referred to as “Target Testing” sought out family DNA information for use in a program called GEDMatch. The acceptance of such programs in court has yet to be fully determined.

However, a key component has been the use of family DNA voluntarily submitted in programs such as Ancestry.com and 23andMe.

Voluntarily submitted. That is the context for a second tragedy that has now unfolded. In October of 2018, Orlando police went to the home of Eleanor Holmes in Valdosta, Georgia.

There the police approached Mrs. Holmes at her front gate and asked her if she would consent to providing a DNA cheek-swab so that police could identify a possible relative in Orlando who had been found dead many years earlier. That was a lie.

Orlando police were actually looking for evidence to link Mrs. Holmes son to the murder of Christina Franke.

Not guilty plea

It is unclear whether police had sufficient evidence to form probable cause for such suspicion but what was clear is that police had already used this lie to trick other members of Mrs. Holmes family into providing a DNA sample.

The information gained from the police deception was used to ultimately charge Mrs. Holmes son, Benjamin Jr., with the death of Christina.

Benjamin has pled not guilty and it remains to be seen what role this largely unproven and deceptively received DNA evidence (the DNA not of the accused but of his family) will play in that trial.

Trickery is not ethical

Issues of the DNA reliability aside, the issue here is not the guilt or innocence of the accused but whether an American citizen not accused of anything, can be tricked into causing her child to be prosecuted.

Taking personal DNA information from private citizens, without a warrant and through deceit, is an outrageous, unreasonable and unconstitutional invasion of privacy. The Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in 2018 challenged the proposition that lies can be used to gain consent to enter a home.

That situation involved a defendant’s home. This situation is much worse. Mrs. Holmes is not a suspect and information from her body receives much greater Fourth Amendment protection than does the home.

The Florida Supreme Court has only approved obtaining saliva samples by deception-obtained consent only from a defendant who was already in custody pursuant to probable cause.

Protected privacy violated?

The Fourth Amendment protects all private citizens; the innocent perhaps even more than those suspected of criminal activity. The taking of DNA from a person not suspected of a crime, by lying to that person, in order to obtain evidence against her son, was shocking behavior.

It was also unnecessary. There was no indication of an attempt to obtain a warrant, or indeed, being honest with Mrs. Holmes as to the real purpose. She may well have cooperated in order to clear her son’s name.

Nor is there any indication that exigent circumstances existed that might justify warrantless action.

While there is precedent for allowing police to lie to a suspect after the suspect has knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily waived his or her right to remain silent, in order to obtain a confession there is no such precedent for innocent persons to be tricked into an invasion of their privacy.

Consent to a search obtained through trickery is not a valid consent particularly as to personal and private information within our bodies. Such information is entitled to the highest level of Fourth Amendment protection.

Real consent

DNA information contained within our bodies, whether it be blood, urine or saliva has consistently been held to be protected by the Fourth Amendment from unreasonable removal from our bodies by the state.

Not only has such received Fourth Amendment protection, but such actions have been held to require a warrant in the absence of exigent circumstances. With the passage of 17 years, the situation can hardly be described as an exigent-emergency circumstance.

In 1968, the United States Supreme Court said that when police obtained consent to enter a home by lying about the existence of a warrant, such consent was invalid.

While invasion of our protected privacy can be justified by consent, that consent requires real consent. Not consent based on a lie. LeRoy Pernell is a professor at Florida A&M University’s College of Law in Orlando.

The post Lying to get DNA evidence from innocent people should not be tolerated appeared first on Florida Courier.

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Trump Set to Sign Largest Cut to Medicaid After a Marathon Protest Speech by Leader Jeffries

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S.

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By Lauren Burke

By a vote of 218 to 214, the GOP-controlled U.S. House passed President Trump’s massive budget and spending bill that will add $3.5 trillion to the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S. With $175 billion allocated in spending for immigration enforcement, the money for more police officers eclipsed the 2026 budget for the U.S. Marines, which is $57 billion. Almost all of the policy focus from the Trump Administration has focused on deporting immigrants of color from Mexico and Haiti.

The vote occurred as members were pressed to complete their work before the arbitrary deadline of the July 4 holiday set by President Trump. It also occurred after Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries took the House floor for over 8 hours in protest. Leader Jeffries broke the record in the U.S. House for the longest floor speech in history on the House floor. The Senate passed the bill days before and was tied at 50-50, with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski saying that, “my hope is that the House is gonna look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.” There were no changes made to the Senate bill by the House. A series of overnight phone calls to Republicans voting against, not changes, was what won over enough Republicans to pass the legislation, even though it adds trillions to the debt. The Trump spending bill also cuts money to Pell grants.

“The Big Ugly Bill steals food out of the hands of starving children, steals medicine from the cabinets of cancer patients, and equips ICE with more funding and more weapons of war than the United States Marine Corps. Is there any question of who those agents will be going to war for, or who they will be going to war against? Beyond these sadistic provisions, Republicans just voted nearly unanimously to close urban and rural hospitals, cripple the child tax credit, and to top it all off, add $3.3 trillion to the ticking time bomb that is the federal deficit – all from a party that embarrassingly pretends to stand for fiscal responsibility and lowering costs,” wrote Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) in a statement on July 3.

“The Congressional Budget Office predicts that 17 million people will lose their health insurance, including over 322,000 Virginians. It will make college less affordable.  Three million people will lose access to food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). And up to 16 million students could lose access to free school meals. The Republican bill does all of this to fund tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations,” wrote Education and Workforce Committee ranking member Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) in a statement. The bill’s passage has prompted Democrats to start thinking about 2026 and the next election cycle. With the margins of victory in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate being so narrow, many are convinced that the balance of power and the question of millions being able to enjoy health care come down to only several thousand votes in congressional elections. But currently, Republicans controlled by the MAGA movement control all three branches of government. That reality was never made more stark and more clear than the last seven days of activity in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.

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WATCH: NNPA Publishers Pivot To Survive

7.2.25 via NBC 4 Washington

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7.2.25 via NBC 4 Washington

https://youtube.com/watch?v=9oZc5Sz0jQQ&feature=oembed

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Congressional Black Caucus Challenges Target on Diversity

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — we found that the explanations offered by the leadership of the Target Corporation fell woefully short of what our communities deserve and of the values of inclusion that Target once touted

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By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

Target is grappling with worsening financial and reputational fallout as the national selective buying and public education program launched by the Black Press of America and other national and local leaders continues to erode the retailer’s sales and foot traffic. But a recent meeting that the retailer intended to keep quiet between CEO Brian Cornell and members of the Congressional Black Caucus Diversity Task Force was publicly reported after the Black Press discovered the session, and the CBC later put Target on blast.

“The Congressional Black Caucus met with the leadership of the Target Corporation on Capitol Hill to directly address deep concerns about the impact of the company’s unconscionable decision to end a number of its diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts,” CBC Chair Yvette Clarke stated. “Like many of the coalition leaders and partner organizations that have chosen to boycott their stores across the country, we found that the explanations offered by the leadership of the Target Corporation fell woefully short of what our communities deserve and of the values of inclusion that Target once touted,” Congresswoman emphasized.  “Black consumers contribute overwhelmingly to our economy and the Target Corporation’s bottom line. Our communities deserve to shop at businesses that publicly share our values without sacrificing our dignity. It is no longer acceptable to deliver promises to our communities in private without also demonstrating those values publicly.”

Lauren Burke, Capitol Hill correspondent for Black Press of America, was present when Target CEO Cornell and a contingent of Target officials arrived at the U.S. Capitol last month. “It’s always helpful to have meetings like this and get some candid feedback and continue to evolve our thinking,” Cornell told Burke as he exited the meeting. And walked down a long hallway in the Cannon House Office Building. “We look forward to follow-up conversations,” he stated. When asked if the issue of the ongoing boycott was discussed, Cornell’s response was, “That was not a big area of focus — we’re focused on running a great business each and every day. Take care of our teams. Take care of the guests who shop with us and do the right things in our communities.”

A national public education campaign on Target, spearheaded by Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), the NNPA’s board of directors, and with other national African American leaders, has combined consumer education efforts with a call for selective buying. The NNPA is a trade association that represents the more than 220 African American-owned newspapers and media companies known as the Black Press of America, the voice of 50 million African Americans across the nation. The coalition has requested that Target restore and expand its stated commitment to do business with local community-owned businesses inclusive of the Black Press of  America, and to significantly increase investment in Black-owned businesses and media, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU, Black-owned Banks, national Black Church denominations, and grassroots and local organizations committed to improving the quality of life of all Americans, and especially those from underserved communities. According to Target’s latest earnings report, net sales for the first quarter of 2025 fell 2.8 percent to $23.85 billion compared to the same period last year. Comparable store sales dropped 3.8 percent, and in-store foot traffic slid 5.7 percent.

Shares of Target have also struggled under the pressure. The company’s stock traded around $103.85 early Wednesday afternoon, down significantly from roughly $145 before the controversy escalated. Analysts note that Target has lost more than $12 billion in market value since the beginning of the year. “We will continue to inform and to mobilize Black consumers in every state in the United States,” Chavis said. “Target today has a profound opportunity to respond with respect and restorative commitment.”

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