Hovey Supports Measure Requiring DNA Testing for Felony Arrests

The following is a press release.

HARTFORD – State Rep. DebraLee Hovey (R-112) is supporting a measure before the legislature’s Judiciary Committee which would require DNA testing for all individuals charged with robbery, assault, murder and other serious crimes to undergo a DNA test.

Hovey, who serves on the Judiciary Committee, favors the legislation which she says can help solve numerous unsolved or cold cases by cross-referencing DNA held as evidence in other open investigations.

The measure has come to be known as “Katie’s Law” after 22-year old Katie Sepich who was brutally assaulted and murdered in New Mexico in 2003. DNA evidence from her assailant was taken from the scene but no suspect was matched to it until three years later when New Mexico enacted a DNA testing requirement for felony arrests. The suspect had been arrested numerous times for other crimes but remained free after killing Sepich all those years.

“This will give law enforcement an absolutely essential tool in helping solve unsolved crimes, nailing repeat offenders, and best of all, preventing further violent crime,” said Hovey. “We want our law enforcement professionals to catch criminals sooner and save laws, and this will help make that possible. It will also assist in exonerating innocent persons as well.”

Hovey noted that 23 other states in the U.S. have already passed such legislation.

Under the bill blood or other biological samples collected would be collected for analysis by the Division of Scientific Services within the Department of Public Safety.

The state already required the collection of DNA from those convicted of sexual assault.

According to The Innocence project, post-conviction DNA testing has led to the exoneration of more than 200 wrongfully-convicted individuals nationwide.

“Critics of this bill say it jeopardizes privacy rights, but courts around the nation have upheld the Constitutionality of these kinds of laws,” said Hovey.  “Collecting DNA samples is no more a violation of privacy than the collection of fingerprints.”

This session of the Connecticut General Assembly will adjourn at midnight, June 8, 2011.