Oklahoma Police Use DNA Dragnet in Search for Killer

June 1 -- Police in Oklahoma City are going to great lengths to catch a killer. They've taken blood samples from 200 men in order to run DNA tests against evidence found at the scene of the crime five years ago.

For the past year, police have been comparing the DNA of 200 men to a semen sample found in the car of a college student who was raped and killed in 1996.

Some of the men tested were selected simply because they lived near the victim and had a criminal record of violence. Others were selected because they resembled a police sketch of the suspect.

Every man tested has been cleared, but police say they will continue the testing until they find a match.

The victim, 21-year-old Juli Busken, had just finished her last semester at the University of Oklahoma before she was found dead near a lake. She was last seen on Dec. 20, 1996, when she was preparing to drive home to Arkansas for the holidays. Police believe she was abducted from the parking lot of her apartment building, raped and shot.

Forced to Give Blood

Mass blood screenings are common in Europe, but there have been few such DNA dragnets in the U.S., and as a result there is not much precedent for deciding whether or not they are legal.

Defense attorneys and civil libertarians have been opposed to the sweeps, citing them as an improper violation of privacy.

Doug Parr with the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers Asssociation says the practice violates people's individual rights.

"It leads us down the road to a police state and totalitarianism, we need to follow the rules and laws as they pertain to the collection of evidence," he told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.

In addition to concern over unreasonable searches, even those who support DNA testing say large-scale genetic dragnets run the risk of police coercion. Parr claims that some of the officers involved in the Busken investigation have told men they will be classified as a suspect if they refuse to supply a blood sample.

One man who was tested and cleared, Dennis Stuermer, tells ABCNEWS he was really scared when police showed up at his home to request a sample of his blood.