State wants to expand DNA file
By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
Balancing privacy rights with the need to solve crime, Hawai'i may require more convicted felons to give DNA samples so the state can expand a database police could use to catch or free suspects.
Hawai'i already requires felons convicted of murder, attempted murder and sex crimes to provide DNA samples. State House and Senate lawmakers now are looking at whether all people convicted of felonies should have to give samples.
DNA, which contains a person's unique genetic code, is found in material such as blood, saliva, semen and hair. Police can match the material found at crime scenes with DNA samples on file at state and federal registries.
The Honolulu Police Department, which operates the state's DNA testing laboratory, has about 2,000 DNA samples on file. The database has been helpful so far in only two old investigations — known as cold cases — but police believe it will become more valuable as more samples are added over time.
State Attorney General Mark Bennett has asked lawmakers to include all convicted felons and all those arrested for felonies, including juveniles, in the database, but key lawmakers said yesterday that they will limit any legislation to convicted felons only.
Many states collect DNA samples from convicted felons, but only four — California, Louisiana, Texas and Virginia — also have laws to obtain DNA from people arrested for felonies. The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California has filed a federal lawsuit to block that portion of the California law as a violation of due process and unreasonable search and seizure protections in the Constitution.
Bennett said a DNA sample — which can be taken using a cotton swab on the inside of a person's mouth — is no more intrusive than a fingerprint but much more accurate. "It is virtually certain that it ensures that the guilty will be convicted but the innocent will not," he said.
But Lois K. Perrin, legal director of the ACLU of Hawai'i, said police already have the right to get DNA samples for violent criminals and sex offenders, who are the most likely to leave genetic material at crime scenes. She also said that a DNA sample, which can provide hints to disease and other personal information, is much more invasive than a fingerprint.
"This is the most intimate information," Perrin said.
The House Judiciary Committee approved a bill yesterday to collect DNA samples from all convicted felons and to require police to preserve evidence that can be used for DNA analysis. The bill would also allow felons in Hawai'i, as they can in most other states, to ask for post-conviction DNA testing of evidence. The Senate Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee heard a similar bill yesterday and will likely vote to advance it on Friday.
The two committee leaders, Rep. Sylvia Luke, D-26th (Punchbowl, Pacific Heights, Nu'uanu Valley), and Senate Majority Leader Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha), said they do not want the bills to cover juveniles or people arrested for felonies.
"There is a lot of potential for abuse there," Luke said.
The Innocence Project, a non-profit legal clinic at Yeshiva University in New York, has found that at least 155 people nationwide have been exonerated by post-conviction DNA testing alone.
Monte Boyd, who has been convicted of theft and is now an advocate for the Innocence Project, said DNA samples can help defendants in cases where witness testimony or the prosecutor's evidence are conflicting or in doubt. "DNA does not lie, people do," he said.
Reach Derrick DePledge at 525-8070 or ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.
