Indiana lawmakers studying expanded DNA testing
A national advocate for DNA sampling is pushing Indiana lawmakers to endorse a proposal to expand testing to any person arrested on a felony, arguing the change would serve as a critical tool in fighting crime.
Jayann Sepich, who co-founded DNA Saves after her daughter was murdered, said the family learned of constraints in the collection of those tests as police worked to identify the person responsible. Although police could find enough evidence on her daughter to create a DNA profile of the man who attacked her, the family learned their home state of New Mexico at the time limited testing to those convicted of a violent felony.
Current state law essentially requires offenders convicted of a felony to provide a DNA sample. On average, the state receives about 27,000 DNA samples a year, according to a fiscal analysis of the proposed expansion. At the Indiana Department of Correction, samples are taken from offenders sentenced on felony convictions upon intake at a facility, according to Doug Garrison, a spokesman for the department.
Sepich said she was stunned to learn of New Mexico’s then-law.
“I know DNA is powerful and it is accurate, and I couldn’t understand why we would take fingerprints and photographs and not take DNA,” Sepich said.
Since then, the organization has worked to expand DNA sampling laws across the nation. On Tuesday, Sepich told a legislative study panel, which is weighing whether to recommend the Indiana General Assembly take up the issue, that DNA sampling helps identify criminals and prevent crimes.
A proposal to expand testing in Indiana by requiring felony arrestees to take a DNA swab failed to advance in the legislature this year.
An author of this year’s bill, state Rep. Greg Steuerwald, said DNA testing is one of the most effective ways to catch a serial rapist, but it also can be used to exonerate people wrongly accused of crimes. The proposed expansion is a complicated issue, said Steuerwald, R-Avon, which is why it’s being aired in front of an interim study committee. The panel will decide whether to recommend that the proposal be approved by the legislature next year.
The Indiana State Police, which handles the processing of samples, estimates the cost associated with the expansion of testing would begin at about $1 million for the agency and go up.
Supporters of the expansion say one of the most prevalent concerns relates to the privacy of arrestees, but they sought to assure lawmakers Tuesday about the security of the DNA database. They also cited the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2013 that law enforcement taking a DNA sample at the time of an arrest is constitutional.
“It’s a great idea,” said David Powell, executive director of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council. “It exonerates the innocent and helps us truly find the guilty.”
This year’s proposal also included a provision permitting the expungement of a DNA sample if no charges were filed against an individual after 30 days. The same goes if an individual is acquitted of charges or they’re dismissed, according to a fiscal analysis of the bill.
Yet some lawmakers expressed concerns Tuesday about the practice’s constitutionality.
State Rep. Thomas Washburne, R-Evansville, said lawmakers will need to weigh what they think is an “unreasonable seizure.”
“I don’t think the balance is between wanting to let criminals off or criminals on. The balance is between obligations we have to uphold our oaths to constitutional principles that Americans have cherished for hundreds of years,” he said.
The man eventually connected to the 2003 murder of Sepich’s daughter was arrested on an unrelated felony charge three months later. But because New Mexico didn’t yet have the law, his cheek wasn’t swabbed, Sepich said. It wasn’t until 2006 that he was found.
“The time to act in Indiana is now,” Sepich told the committee. “Before others are raped, before others are murdered, before other heinous acts are committed.”
Call Star reporter Chelsea Schneider at (317) 444-6077. Follow her on Twitter: @indystarchelsea.