House panel
alters DNA bill

The new version only requires
convicted felons to take a test

Gov. Linda Lingle's administration is hoping to help police solve more cold cases with a pair of bills that would require suspects and felons to submit to DNA testing.

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Under the original bill, authorities would be able to collect DNA from anyone arrested in the state for a felony offense -- including juveniles.

To the relief of civil-rights advocates, the House Judiciary Committee yesterday amended its version of the bill so that only convicted felons would be required to submit to the tests.

"I'm delighted that the most problematic portions of the bill as drafted have been deleted," said American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii Legal Director Lois K. Perrin, who said the ACLU also opposes the collection of DNA from convicts without suspicion.

Both the ACLU and state Office of the Public Defender said the original bill violated the constitutional right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

"To allow that kind of sampling really equates arrest with guilt," Perrin told committee members.

Only Louisiana, Virginia, Texas and California have similar statutes, she said.

In California, the ACLU has filed a lawsuit challenging a similar law requiring that samples be collected from all those arrested for felonies. The ACLU plans to do the same in Hawaii if the state enacts a similar law, Perrin said.

Decision-making on a Senate version of the bill was deferred until Friday.

The state recently began collecting DNA samples from convicted sex offenders and violent offenders.

The new bill would also provide more funding for the program, clarify procedures for handling the samples and extend the statute of limitations on cases where DNA has been recovered as evidence.

The criminal justice system is far from perfect, but using DNA analysis can help, said state Attorney General Mark Bennett.

"Every case that we can solve with DNA means one more case of certainty in our criminal justice system," he said.

The committee combined the House version of the bill with a related bill that requires authorities to keep evidence that can be used for analysis. The amended measure does have some potential of making it into law, said Rep. Sylvia Luke (D, Pacific Heights-Punchbowl).

But it is likely to see many changes before it gets the chance to be signed into law, said Luke, the committee chairwoman.

"I'm sure as we move along we might have a totally different animal," she said.