New law gives state more DNA
July 25, 2005
By BRYAN CORBIN Courier & Press staff writer
Submitted to Gopopai.org by Cherie Wood, District 8

A new state law could have a big effect on people convicted of felony nonsupport, forging checks, driving drunk or selling marijuana.

Indiana law now will treat those felony offenders in the same way it treats murderers, rapists and child molesters in one key respect: They will have to give blood samples so their DNA profiles can be added to a database for future comparisons.

Supporters say the new law, which went into effect this month, could help solve crimes. But opponents find the law troubling or even Orwellian, contending it violates the privacy of nonviolent offenders.

The change stems from a pair of bills passed with little fanfare by the Indiana General Assembly in the spring and signed into law by the governor: House Enrolled Act 1241 and Senate Enrolled Act 13. The new law now requires anyone convicted of any new felony to have a blood sample drawn so their unique genetic profile can someday be analyzed and added to the Indiana State Police database of offenders' DNA profiles. Detectives investigating crimes can compare an unknown DNA sample from a crime scene against the profiles of known offenders; and if they locate a match, they have a suspect.

COURIERPRESS.COM
Read the recently passed bills that require DNA sampling of all convicted felons.

http://www.IN.gov/legislative/bills/2005/HE/HE1241.1.html

http://www.IN.gov/legislative/bills/2005/SE/SE0013.1.html



For nearly a decade, only a select group of felons found guilty of "crimes against the person" were forced to provide DNA. Those categories included homicide crimes (such as murder and manslaughter), battery and related offenses, kidnapping and confinement, sex crimes (such as rape and child molesting) and robbery, as well as burglary. Until now, people convicted of nonviolent felonies, such as felony nonsupport of a dependent, forgery or possession of marijuana over 30 grams, did not have to give DNA samples.

But the new law has changed that. All felons convicted on or after July 1, or those felons already incarcerated by that date, now are eligible for mandatory DNA sampling, the law says.

Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Stan Levco supported the legislation.

"The intrusion, if any, is so minimal, compared to the potential for solving crime, that I think it's a great idea," he said. Said Chief Deputy Eric Williams of the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Department: "If you never commit a crime and never get in trouble, you don't have anything to worry about.

"DNA is such good conclusive evidence in so many crimes that to have that for comparative reasons makes a lot of sense to us."

An Evansville-area defense attorney, Dennis Vowels, said the new law could help clear some former felons from suspicion because police will be able to quickly exclude them as suspects, using the new database. But Vowels had qualms about expanding DNA testing.

"Is there a need for government to do it? The legislature clearly thinks so. As a civil libertarian, I'm not enamored with the idea of them having that much information about individuals," Vowels said. "It just seems a little overreaching in terms of the government's need to know about individual citizens."

Two Southwest Indiana lawmakers weighed similar concerns, though they reached different conclusions.

State Rep. Trent Van Haaften, D-Mount Vernon, ultimately voted for it. During House committee hearings, the former Posey County prosecutor said he suggested that the law specifically list particular felonies where DNA sampling would be required. But his view didn't prevail, and the umbrella approach did, he said.

"The bottom line was trying to apply advancements in technology to solving crimes," Van Haaften said.

State Rep. Phil Hoy, D-Evansville, had voted for an earlier version of the bill, but he voted against the final version because it added language he found objectionable: If someone was convicted because of the database, his conviction would not be reversed if his DNA sample was added to the database by mistake.

"I didn't like that; I thought that was double-jeopardy," Hoy said.

Hoy also was concerned that the law goes too far in testing people convicted of nonviolent felonies. "How much Big Brother do we want?" Hoy said. "I'm not sure you need to do this on every felony charge." In terms of people affected and in tax dollars, the law's impact could be significant.

The Legislative Services Agency estimated that an additional 10,876 felony offenders already in the prison system will now be eligible for DNA sampling and testing, at a cost to taxpayers of nearly $1.3 million. For each year thereafter, another 26,243 new felons would be added to the system, at an additional cost of $918,505 annually.

But the law assumes that not all new DNA samples collected will be analyzed at first. It allows the State Police superintendent to test as many or as few samples as the budget allows. If federal grant funds become available, then the State Police lab would be required to test all samples, the law says.

The Indiana Department of Correction will collect blood from state prison inmates, while sheriff's offices will take samples from convicted felons serving shorter sentences in county jails.