Va. crime commission to study expansion of DNA databank to include more people convicted of misdemeanors – Roanoke Times

RICHMOND The Virginia State Crime Commission will consider expanding the state DNA database of convicted people by including more misdemeanors.

While a larger database of DNA profiles from offenders would help solve more crimes, further expansion of qualifying crimes raises cost and privacy concerns and is opposed by the ACLU of Virginia and others.

The commission staff will also review the adequacy of current safeguards against the unauthorized collection, retention or dissemination of DNA information collected by authorities and the money required for any additional collecting.

A bill that would have directed the crime commission to study expanding DNA collection did not pass in the General Assembly this year, but the commissions executive committee decided it wanted to do it anyway.

State Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, the chairman of the commission, said, Im looking forward to the information our staff assembles as they review what has happened in Virginia and other states.

Among those in favor of the study are John and Susan Graham, parents of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, who believe she would not have been murdered had her killers DNA been taken following a misdemeanor trespassing conviction in 2010.

Hannah Graham was abducted in Charlottesville and slain by Jesse Matthew Jr. in 2014. His DNA from the trespassing conviction would have generated a hit in 2010 linking Matthew to a 2005 sexual assault in Fairfax, and he would have presumably been in prison in 2014 instead of killing Graham.

As part ofa 2016 plea deal, Matthewpleaded guilty to killing Graham and 20-year-old Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington of Roanoke County, who was abducted in October 2009 in Charlottesville.

The Grahams and expansion proponents like Albemarle County Sheriff J.E. Chip Harding and Commonwealths Attorney Robert Tracci say they hope the commission will look at which class one misdemeanor convictions in Virginia those punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of $2,500 make the most sense for requiring samples.

According to the National Council of State Legislatures, two states, New York and Wisconsin, currently collect DNA samples from people convicted of all felonies and misdemeanors; two states collect for only some felonies and some misdemeanors; while 42 states, including Virginia, collect for all felonies and some misdemeanors.

The Virginia Department of Forensic Sciences website shows Virginias database, also called a databank, now holds more than 415,000 offender DNA profiles. DNA profiles recovered from crime scenes are compared looking for matches, or hits. The DNA profiles can also be compared to find matches between crimes and exonerate the innocent.

Virginia was the first state with its own database and had its first hit in 1993 when the assailant was identified in the vicious beating, rape and robbery of a 63-year-old Dale City woman. Virginias database profiles have now solved, or assisted in solving, more 10,000 crimes including 750 murders and more than 1,500 sexual assaults.

In Virginia most recently, nine misdemeanors were added in 2015. DNA is now currently collected from adults convicted of 14 primarily sex-related misdemeanors, but also for such misdemeanors as resisting arrest, stalking and the unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

(DNA samples are also required in Virginia from: adults convicted of felonies and adults arrested for any violent felony and certain burglary crimes; juveniles, 14 or older at the time of the offense and convicted or adjudicated delinquent of any crime that would be a felony if committed by an adult; people registered with the Virginia Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry; and anyone ordered to provide a sample by a circuit court as part of a plea agreement. Profiles collected at the time of arrest are removed from the database if there is no conviction.)

Traci said he and Harding provided a host of topics they hope the commission staff will look at, among them the experience of New York and Wisconsin since those states expanded collection to include all misdemeanors and identify the serious misdemeanors that returned the most hits to unsolved crimes as a result of their expansions.

He also said they would like to see a review of current privacy protections to enhance transparency and confidence in the integrity of safekeeping and prevention of unauthorized dissemination of the collected DNA. That would also include possible stiffer penalties for the unlawful retention or dissemination of information.

Kristen Howard, executive director of the commission, indicated those areas will be examined. The commission will hear a report on the proposal at its Nov. 14 meeting.

Bill Farrar, a spokesman for the ACLU of Virginia, said, We would object to any expansion to the list of offenses for which DNA collection would be made mandatory.

Already, in our estimation, the list has grown beyond whats really appropriate. We dont think that this most personal and private of information should be collected from people who have only committed a misdemeanor, for example, Farrar said.

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Va. crime commission to study expansion of DNA databank to include more people convicted of misdemeanors - Roanoke Times