Expanded felon DNA testing in our state?

Some officials want to adopt new federal rule

JOSEPH TURNER; joe.turner@thenewstribune.com
Last updated: December 28th, 2008 12:14 AM (PST)

Washington law requires collection of DNA samples only from criminals who are convicted – not just arrested – of felony crimes. DNA collection also is required for a smattering of lesser offenses, too, generally if they are crimes of a sexual nature. But again, those samples are taken only after conviction.

Rep. Mark Miloscia, D-Federal Way, wants Washington state to take the next step.

“It’s going to solve crimes,” said Miloscia, who sponsored a state bill in 2005 that was much like the new federal law that will take effect Jan. 9. “If you ever commit a crime, your (DNA) markers are in the computer.”

Miloscia’s 2005 bill never got beyond a public hearing in a House committee, but he said he plans to introduce it again in the 2009 legislative session that begins Jan. 12. He acknowledged that the bill’s prospects are not good, largely because lawmakers have been told any bill that costs money probably won’t get far with a Legislature facing an estimated $5.7 billion budget deficit.

Felons in Washington are responsible for paying the $100 cost of collecting DNA from a swab of the inside of their cheek, but the state covers the cost in “hardship cases,” instances in which the offender can’t afford it.

Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said last week that cost isn’t the only reason Miloscia’s bill should not be passed into law. It intrudes too much on individual privacy, he said.

“This is a close question,” Kline said. “It’s not an obvious slam-dunk. The public has an interest on both sides of this question – in catching the bad guys and in protecting the privacy of the good guys.”

Washington draws the line at convictions, rather than arrests, because of the presumption of innocence until proved guilty, he said.

The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs wants to see the line drawn at arrests, while the American Civil Liberties Union wants to hold the line at convictions, Kline said.

TACOMA CASE CITED AS EXAMPLE

At least 13 states have laws that allow authorities to collect DNA samples upon arrest, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. And a New Mexico woman is waging a campaign to get all states to adopt similar laws.

Jayann Sepich, whose daughter was raped and murdered in 2003, has enlisted the aid of “America’s Most Wanted” television show host John Walsh to drum up support for what she is calling “Katie’s Law,” named for her daughter. And they are using the case of a Tacoma serial rapist as evidence of crimes that could be avoided if law enforcement collected DNA upon arrest, rather than conviction.

Anthony Casper Dias, 29, was convicted in March of 20 counts of rape, burglary and robbery in Pierce County. He pleaded guilty in September to 15 additional charges in King County. He was sentenced to more than 227 years in prison by a Pierce County judge.

Walsh says Dias could have been caught after his first rape if the Washington Legislature had adopted Miloscia’s bill in 2005. Dias had been arrested on a felony hit-and-run charge after the new law would have taken effect, so his DNA would have been collected in July and then matched against DNA collected at a rape in Fircrest in August, Walsh and Sepich contend.

That would have spared 19 other Dias victims in the following three months in Tacoma, Federal Way and Des Moines, all of whom were attacked after the August rape, they said.

JUSTICE VS. PRIVACY

“We take their fingerprints, their pictures and their address when they are arrested,” Miloscia said in an interview in mid-December. “What’s wrong with taking their DNA? We would throw their DNA away if they aren’t convicted. It’s not something you can abuse in any way.”

His 2005 proposal, House Bill 1135, says the DNA for arrested felons would be destroyed if the charges are dropped or if they are acquitted, and their markers would be removed from the state database maintained by the Washington State Patrol.

“Emotions run high when you have a particularly heinous crime,” Kline said. “The public hates the bad guy here and understandably sympathizes with the victim. And the bad guys make the paper.”

“What you don’t read about is the privacy of all the other people who were arrested for something and ultimately were found innocent,” Kline added. “Do we want to invade their privacy by having their DNA out there on file in a database?

“Privacy is a concept, and when we give it up, initially you don’t notice anything,” he said. “My concern is that very often the concrete wins out over the conceptual.”

Miloscia said he believes a majority of the Legislature’s members will see things his way once the state’s budget problems are behind them.

Joseph Turner: 253-597-8436

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Originally published: December 28th, 2008 12:14 AM (PST)