DNA testing bill passes S.C. House and Senate
The South Carolina Senate and the House of Representatives overrode the Governor's veto of the DNA testing bill today. It's a mixed blessing - the reason the Governor vetoed the bill was because at the last minute the legislature combined the bill providing for preservation of DNA evidence and post-conviction access to DNA evidence for testing, with a bill allowing law enforcement to take DNA samples from persons who are arrested for felonies and some misdemeanors, regardless of whether they are convicted.
We needed the post-conviction testing bill, but at what price? Why did the legislature feel the need to combine these two bills? The provision allowing for the taking of DNA samples from persons who have not been convicted goes too far, and is an unreasonable invasion of privacy.
"We need to get government out of the lives of people," Hart said. "This bill grows government."And, Hart said, part of the legislation opens the door to police asking for samples even when they don't take people into custody. "Something doesn't match up in this bill, ladies and gentlemen," Hart said.
"It's a disappointment," Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said. "This was a bridge too far."
Police can already get DNA samples from suspects if they show probable cause.
Hart said that shows authorities don't want to use the tools they already have. "We don't want to have to give a judge a reason why we want to collect the DNA of this person," Hart said.
Sanford and the American Civil Liberties Union have complained, too, that the legislation will leave DNA information in government databases when people aren't convicted.
While the new law allows the destruction of the information, people must ask for it, and could be forced to pay for it, Hart said. Meanwhile, the sample itself would be kept and there is no requirement to destroy DNA data kept in a federal database.
The post-conviction testing bill, on the other hand, provides a much-needed resource for the wrongfully convicted to prove their innocence, that has never been available in this state. Prosecutorial misconduct, Brady violations, perjured testimony by jailhouse snitches, and eyewitness identification errors happen everywhere, including in South Carolina, and are getting attention across the country due to DNA exonerations, which allow us to go back and ask, "what went wrong?" so that we can hopefully guard against the same mistakes in the future.
