Police Use Trick to Get DNA Sample

A guilty verdict in a murder trial was upheld in Olympia, Washington even though the police tricked the defendant into giving up a DNA sample.

Here's what happened.  Police suspected John Athan of killing a 13 year old girl over 20 years ago.  He was 14 at the time.  They never had any evidence so they could not prosecute him for the murder. 

Then in 2003 police sent Athan a letter that seemed to be from a legal firm, asking him if they could represent him in a class action lawsuit.  He fell for the trick and licked the return envelope when he mailed the paperwork back to them.  Police extracted his DNA from the envelope and it gave them the match they needed to have him prosecuted for the murder.

The thing is, in Washington it is illegal to impersonate a lawyer.  The judge let it go though.  Athan then appealed on the grounds that it was a violation of his privacy for them to get his DNA from the envelope.  Again, the court ruled against him and upheld the conviction.  There is no privacy interest in the saliva used to seal mail.