Legal loophole allows DNA of those who were executed to be added to FBI's national database
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He was convicted in 1980 of killing 33 men and boys in the Chicago area between 1972 and 1978, but investigators always suspected he had more victims than the 28 found in the space beneath his house and in a nearby river.His DNA was never added to the FBI's national DNA database -- officially called the Combined DNA Index System or CODIS -- because it didn't exist when he was put to death in 1994. Illinois law did not provide for the DNA of convicted killers not in prison after it was enacted in 2002 to be added.
But Cook County, Illinois, sheriff's detective Jason Moran, who discovered vials of Gacy's blood in the cold case file a year ago, also found a legal loophole that allowed Gacy's DNA and that of others to be entered into the database.
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Moran learned that when the state executes an inmate, the coroner lists the manner of death as homicide. The law allows for the DNA of homicide victims to be added to the database, the sheriff said.
Cold case cops find new DNA strategy - CNN.com
