25 people saw the guy and he was white.

But the police still managed to find a way to convict a black guy

Although siblings inherit the same genes from their parents, the dominant and recessive expression of these genes is what makes us all look different. Throw in the effects of aging, environment, life style, hair loss, skin damage (tanning, any one?), cosmetics and such and one wonders how useful this facial mapping technique remains.

None the less, as a geek, I must admit the concept is very cool!!

While this is all well and good napping the local Joe from stealing the old ladies cookies...
It won't do diddly for those that have had plastic surgery or will then choose to have plastic surgery.

Failing that, what about injuries to the face including scarring?

I'm sure this project isn't 100% so I hope they do some trial runs to see how effective it is.
We wouldn't want more innocent people being temporarily gaoled for crimes they haven't committed.

The original article says that "maybe 500 facial markers and 500 ancestry markers" would be enough to build a recognizable picture of the face.

Well, I am not a geneticist but do do research in biomedical sciences. The statistical basis of genetics is sound and there is a lot of data available and more coming up in the near future. However we have very little idea of the mechanisms that produce certain facial features. Doing mechanistic modeling of how the genotype generates the phenotype in the case of the face is not going to be possible in the near future. So if the shared ancestry of individuals can somehow be used to deduce the facial features then it might work. However, even though all humans are related, statistics without knowing anything of the mechanisms behind it might not be enough. "Shriver MD" has according to pubmed an extensive publication record but the biochemical and cell biological mechanisms behind skin pigmentation are much better understood than the mechanisms behind facial morphology. The work can still be useful by excluding some individuals.

And don't forget, it's also encoded in his DNA about how he styles his hair and whether he grows a beard, goatee or shaves it off. :P

$10 says that this tying of specific DNA strands to specific facial structures will end up being used to aid in the making genetically modified sexy babies.

So, the shape of the glasses he's wearing was encoded in his DNA, too? What about the clothes he was wearing when committing the crimes, any chance to reconstruct them as well? ;-P

I preferred the picture of Billy G. This guy looks more like Ali G.