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                            LexisNexisª Academic

               Copyright 2001 Little Rock Newspapers, Inc.
                       The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

                           June 18, 2001, Monday

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. B1

LENGTH: 1295 words

HEADLINE: DNA dragnet in '96 student murder comes under fire

BYLINE: RODNEY BOWERS, ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE, @Private:, @Caption:,
@Correction:

BODY:
OKLAHOMA CITY Dennis Stuermer never has been convicted of a felony, but his
photograph appeared on the front page of Oklahomas largest newspaper last
year alongside an article that named him as a suspect in the 1996 murder of
a 21-year-old dance student from Benton, Ark.
Police believe University of Oklahoma student Jewel Juli Busken was
kidnapped, raped inside her car and then shot in the head. Her body was
found by a lake near Oklahoma City.
Stuermer, who lived four blocks from Buskens apartment in Norman, is one of
more than 200 men who were asked to provide samples of their DNA in an
attempt to identify Buskens killer.
In whats become one of the most widespread DNA-testing cases in U.S.
history, all those tested were exonerated when their DNA did not match that
found in semen in Buskens car. Some civil libertarians have called the DNA
dragnet a violation of the constitutional right to privacy.
It smacks of the kind of police state tactics that this country has gone to
war against, said Doug Parr, a board member of the Oklahoma Criminal Defense
Lawyers Association.
Among those already tested and exonerated were two Arkansans Buskens former
boyfriend and an acquaintance.
Oklahoma police now plan to test another 200 men in hopes of finding a
match. Targeted are Buskens neighbors, local men with a criminal records
that include violence, any man who resembles police sketches based on
statements by possible witnesses to Buskens kidnapping, or anyone else that
police have reason to suspect.
Mary Jean Busken of Benton, Juli Buskens mother, praised authorities for
their continuing efforts to solve the murder of her daughter. She said
people should have no problem with providing samples for a test.
If I didnt do it, she said, Id want to be cleared.
For Stuermer, 22, exoneration wasnt the end of the story. His attorney, Doug
Wall of Oklahoma City, says Stuermer continues to encounter people who ask,
Did you kill her?
Wall said that during the three months that Stuermer waited for the results
of his DNA test, his landlord tried to evict him from his apartment. And his
employer told him that his job was in jeopardy because of the suspicion he
was involved in the death, Wall said.
Stuermer, who hangs plasterboard for a living, became a suspect in May 2000
after police obtained a letter written by an Oklahoma county jail inmate a
woman who once was evicted from a house owned by Stuermers father. The
letter mentioned Stuermers resemblance to a composite sketch of a man seen
in Buskens parking lot the day of her disappearance.
The letter also cast suspicion on Stuermers identical twin, Travis, who
lived in nearby Moore, and their father, Pete. On May 18, 2000, police asked
Travis and Pete Stuermer to provide blood and saliva for testing. When they
failed to do so, authorities issued search warrants for them that required
them to provide blood samples and also issued a similar warrant for Dennis.
Wall said his client wasnt contacted about the tests before he received the
warrant ordering him to provide samples.
Although Dennis Stuermer was cleared because of the DNA test, Wall said he
believes his clients rights may have been violated.
DNA certainly is a double-edged sword, Wall said.
Wall, who does not represent Travis or Pete Stuermer, said the test brought
undue suspicion to his client and that the genetic coding was fed into a
national registry where it can be examined by other police agencies.
My client was never given his DNA sample back, Wall said. He shouldnt be in
that database.
Dennis Stuermer declined to be interviewed. Wall said he is considering a
federal lawsuit on Stuermers behalf to challenge the constitutionality of
blanket DNA testing and a possible civil suit against the states largest
newspaper because of his grief resulting from the news article and photo.
Mike Shannon, managing editor of the Daily Oklahoman, said the newspaper did
nothing wrong. Our reporting was based on public records, he said.
The Oklahoma City paper also published a subsequent article that noted the
DNA test results cleared the Stuermer family.
Capt. Jessica Cummins, an Oklahoma City police spokesman, said DNA testing
is an accepted investigative tool.
Basically, its the same thing as a fingerprint, she said.
Jim Clark, executive director of the Arkansas Crime Laboratory in Little
Rock, said hes not aware of any widespread DNA testing case in Arkansas.
Theres been a couple of cases where the court has ordered a DNA sample,
Clark said, but not from a large number of people.
Bob Fisher, a spokesman with the Arkansas attorney generals office, said he
was not aware of any Arkansas law that would preclude authorities from
casting a DNA dragnet similar to the one in the Busken case. The state has a
law that authorizes DNA testing of certain convicted criminals so their
genetic coding may be filed in a registry for police use.
Some Arkansans say mandatory DNA testing violates the constitutional rights
of those told to provide samples.
Didi Sallings, executive director of the 147-member Arkansas Public Defender
Commission, said it scares me the way Oklahoma authorities are using the
test.
Theyre casting a very large net, Sallings said. I think DNA can be a
wonderful tool, but I think weve got to be careful how we use it.
Cummins countered. Its not because we want to get everyones DNA. We want to
solve this case. We want to get a killer off the streets.
Cummins said almost all of the suspects tested thus far gave samples
voluntarily to clear themselves.
Out of the 200, she said, only four required a court order.
But opponents of the tests say the innocent men who agreed to give samples
may have feared they would appear guilty if they refused.
Paul Bresson, a spokesman for the FBI in Washington, said a few other U.S.
cities, including Milwaukee and New York, have issued warrants based on DNA
profiles and used them to conduct widespread tests of 100 or more people.
We wouldn't call it a frequent occurrence, but it's not an unprecedented
case, Bresson said of the Busken testing.
Mass DNA blood screenings have been used on a wider scale in Europe. The
first widely publicized case occurred in 1987 in England, where the blood of
5,000 people was tested after two teen-agers were raped and murdered.
In Oklahoma, Cleveland County District Attorney Tim Kuykendall, who could
not be reached for comment, approved the DNA testing in the Busken case last
year after filing what he and others believe to be the states first John Doe
warrant based on a DNA profile. The warrant charges the unknown person with
first-degree murder, first-degree rape, forcible sodomy and kidnapping.
Sallings said the criteria should be strict when determining who should have
to submit to a DNA test. For example, she said composite sketches of
assailants are suspect because of the varying recollections of witnesses.
She said they should not be used as the sole reason for issuing a warrant.
Wall said the sketch used in obtaining a warrant for his clients blood would
have matched most any white male in his 20s. There should be a law to
guarantee protection against possible abuse of DNA testing and dissemination
of the results, he said.
They seem to feel they have free rein to test people, Wall said of Oklahoma
City police.
Rita Sklar, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in
Arkansas, called the Oklahoma DNA tests very disturbing. She said acceptance
of such a practice opens the door for further abuse, noting that it may even
lead to the testing of newborns and storing their genetic code.
Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? she said.
Information for this article was contributed by The Associated Press.

LOAD-DATE: June 18, 2001