By Debbie Russell
President, Central Texas Chapter of the ACLU of Texas
On Tuesday, March 17, I testified before the Senate Criminal Justice Committee as the sole opponent of Senate Bill 727. This bill expands mandatory collection of DNA samples to include those "sentenced to probation and those on deferred adjudication" for those charged with felonies or misdemeanor sex crimes.
Click here to read the legislation.
Many seemingly compelling stories were offered by proponents, including one that the bill would not address since it was committed by someone who hadn't committed a previous felony. But no speaker addressed why law enforcement didn't seek a court warrant if there was probable cause to collect DNA on an offender. Other stories were offered about having caught rapists because of DNA collection from previous convictions, but these offenders were caught by the tools in place now.
Statements such as "DNA is the 21st century's fingerprint" and "DNA is an effective crime solving tool" were put forth in support of this bill. I opened my testimony with that, "...in fact, DNA is not just a fingerprint...it is much more intrusive in that it reveals a person's most private information including diseases and genetic deficiencies as well as reveals information about the person's relatives who have committed no crimes.” I also offered that "DNA is an effective tool, but not when there's no probable cause." Searching for needles in a haystack is not a good use of public resources nor is it an efficient way of investigating crime.
I said that in this economic climate, we cannot afford to process an additional 60,000 DNA samples taken from those on probation or deferred adjudication, especially when these people have already been deemed not to be a threat to public safety by the judges who sentenced them. We still are not able to process samples on those in jail waiting to be cleared or convicted, whose DNA samples are collected under current law. I offered California as an example, where one man sat seven months accused of the rape of a 4 year old until he was cleared. In another California case, a felon committed two rapes upon release, including one of a child, while his DNA sat waiting to be processed. Human Rights Watch says there are about 400,000 rape kits nationwide going untested each year.
Sen. Ellis asked me if we shouldn't be advocating for funding to process these samples, and I said, "Not necessarily, as there are still inherent problems with the bill." Between due process and privacy, lack of funds to processing what is already on the shelves, racial profiling -- people of color are arrested three to four times more often in this state, so they –- and their family members -- would be disproportionately represented in collections -- and usurping a judge's determination of who is and who doesn't pose probable threat to the public, this is a bad bill all the way around.
Sen. Whitmire asked if I believed some bills are "for the greater good." I simply answered I believed all bills came with good intentions, but we must be mindful of the precedent any piece of legislation sets.
No action was taken, as it was left pending in committee. We'll keep you posted.
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