Idaho lags behind other states in taking DNA from felons, bill boosts sampling

Idaho is now the only state that doesn’t collect and catalogue DNA samples from all convicted felons, the AP reports; SB 1067, legislation to change that cleared, the Senate today on a unanimous vote and now heads to the House side. Click below for a full report from AP reporter Mitchell Schmidt.

Idaho Senate passes bill to expand DNA database
By MITCHELL SCHMIDT, Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Idaho Senate has advanced legislation to bring Idaho’s criminal DNA database up to speed with the rest of the country by adding all felons’ DNA samples to the network.

Idaho is the only state not already collecting and cataloging DNA samples from all convicted felons.

The Senate approved the bill unanimously Monday. The measure would expand Idaho’s DNA collection program, which was established in 1996 and only includes samples from sexual or violent offenders.

Sen. Denton Darrington, R-Delco, said the bill would increase the state forensic department’s workload from 1,700 samples per year to about 5,400. For each sample added, there is the increased chance that criminals will be caught and those wrongly convicted are set free, he said.

Idaho had 3,585 felony convictions last year with 1,269 DNA samples submitted to the lab.

“All of us want the kind of criminals that we might catch here caught and taken care of. All of us want those who did not commit crimes to be exonerated. DNA is a tool in both of those,” Darrington said.

But almost tripling the number of samples being uploaded each year will require additional staff. The measure includes funding for the hiring and training of two additional scientists to the state forensic department. The project carries a $750,000 startup price tag in 2012 and an additional $400,000 to maintain in subsequent years. The plan is to begin adding additional DNA saliva samples to the database by 2013.

Idaho State Police Major Ked Wills said the additional staff is required if the forensics team expects to upload all felonies in the state.

Department scientists can now process about 300 samples a month, and already is backlogged. Most samples from 2009 and 2010 have not yet uploaded into the federal database, he said. The department has almost 5,000 samples in the federal database, with about 6,000 still to be processed in-house, Wills said.

The addition of two fully-trained scientists would greatly aid in diminishing the backlog and keep up with the additional samples that would be submitted as a result of the bill, he said. Wills noted that the majority of convictions added would include drug felonies.

The bill, which now goes to the House for consideration, also would allow law enforcement in other states to access Idaho’s DNA Index System.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.