State's DNA database links Fulton County man to 1999 rape case
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Posted 5:57PM on Tuesday, January 29, 2002
ATLANTA - Lieutenant Governor Mark Taylor said Tuesday the state's new DNA database was used to link a Fulton County man indicted on felony-murder charges to a 1999 rape. <br>
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Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard says Tommy C. Wright Junior was indicted in two separate cases Tuesday. <br>
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Wright was charged with murder, felony murder, rape, aggravated assault, feticide, burglary and cruelty to children stemming from the October 29, 2001 beating death of Erica L. Thompson. <br>
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Howard says DNA evidence that was collected from Thompson's body positively matched Wright. The evidence was then put into the state's DNA database, which matched Wright's DNA with DNA from an unsolved rape case in 1999. <br>
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The General Assembly passed Taylor's DNA database bill last year, which requires the collection of DNA samples from convicted felons. <br>
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Last week, authorities charged three men with murdering a Coweta County farmer and his son 12 years ago, saying they solved the case through the DNA database.