The Senate Judiciary Committee heard Sen. Houchin’s SB 322 on submitting DNA for felony arrestees. This bill requires every person arrested for a felony after June 30, 2017, to submit a DNA sample, and specifies that the sample may be obtained only by buccal swab. It also provides for the expungement of a DNA sample taken from a person if the person is acquitted of all felony charges. The bill requires the officer who obtains a DNA sample from a person to inform the person of the right to DNA expungement and to provide the person with a form that may be used for DNA expungement, and permits the use of evidence other than a court order for expungement. Additionally, the bill increases the DNA sample processing fee from $2 to $4 and allocates $500,000 semiannually to hold harmless all funds and to provide an additional amount to the DNA processing fund. The bill specifies that the discovery of DNA evidence tending to show previously unknown crimes committed by a person on bail may lead to revocation of bail or an increase in the amount of bail.
The bill was amended changing the effective date to December 31, 2017, addressing felonies converted to misdemeanors, and no felony charges being filed 365 days after arrest. The Indiana Public Defender Council, Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council, Boone County Sheriff, and Indiana State Police Laboratory Division testified in favor of the bill. Multiple private citizens, wrongly arrested or criminal victims, testified in favor of the bill. The amended bill passed 9-1.
Read the bill at: https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2017/bills/senate/322