Sanford vetoes South Carolina DNA testing bill
The DNA testing bill was vetoed by the governor, which isn't entirely a bad thing, considering that the DNA access and evidence preservation bill had been combined with a bill allowing law enforcement to take DNA samples from arrestees who had not been convicted of a crime. Surprisingly, Sanford says that the reason he vetoed the bill is because he opposes the portion allowing DNA samples to be taken from arrestees:
We see this legislation as a reach past that very foundation upon which this country was founded," Sanford told legislators in his veto. He called the bill a "further encroachment on our civil liberties and privacy rights . . . Given the ever-expanding scope of the DNA database, we believe that it is finally time to draw a line in the sand and say that the DNA database will not be expanded to individuals who have not been convicted of a crime.
And Sanford supports DNA access for inmates and evidence preservation. I applaud his concern for our civil liberties and privacy rights and wholeheartedly agree with him, but it is hard to square his interest in criminal justice on this issue with his disregard for the Constitution on other issues, such as his his statement that indigent defense funding would "send the wrong message." I suppose some parts of the Constitution are more popular than others.
The legislature will not look at the DNA bill again until January 2009 - then they can either override the governor's veto or go back to the drawing board with two separate bills as it should have been to begin with.
