Op Ed: Expand DNA Data Bank

DNA is one of the most powerful tools ever developed to solve and prevent crimes, to exonerate the innocent and to bring justice to victims of crime. Yet we are not making full use of this technology.
Over the last decade, the New York State Legislature has expanded the DNA data bank several times, but it is far from where it should be. We still are permitted to collect DNA samples from just 46 percent of all people convicted of crimes in New York State. It is time for the law to be expanded to allow DNA samples to be taken for all penal law convictions so that justice can truly be served to the fullest.
At present, DNA is collected upon conviction for all felonies and a limited group of only 36 misdemeanors. But because all misdemeanors are not included, over half of all of those convicted of crimes in New York walk out of the courthouse without having to provide a DNA sample for comparison to DNA recovered from unsolved crimes. This seriously undermines public safety.
Recent history tells us that the greater the number of convicted criminals who are required to provide a DNA sample for inclusion in the DNA data bank, the greater the number of serious crimes that will be solved.
We know this because in the several times that the DNA data bank has been incrementally expanded since its inception in 1996, thousands of cold cases have been solved and countless crimes surely have been prevented.
Interestingly, many people felt the inclusion of some misdemeanors in the 2006 expansion would not yield significant results. With five years of hindsight, however, we now know that could not be further from the truth. In Queens County alone, DNA collected as a result of the last expansion of the data bank has led to the identification of perpetrators in more than 150 cold cases, including several extremely violent attacks on women and children.
For example, in 2006, DNA collected from a low-level attempted larceny conviction led to a DNA cold hit linking defendant Richard Thomas to the 1996 rape of a woman who was then locked in the trunk of her car and the 2004 rape of a 12-year-old girl as she walked to a school bus stop. Thomas was subsequently arrested, convicted and sentenced to 75 years in prison.
In 2007, DNA from a misdemeanor assault conviction produced a DNA cold hit linking defendant Kenneth Washington to a string of crimes, including a violent attack on a child during a home invasion, the sodomy of a pregnant woman, a near fatal beating of an off-duty police officer in her home and a burglary. Washington was subsequently arrested, convicted and sentenced to 90 years in prison.
In 2009, DNA from a misdemeanor petit larceny conviction resulted in a DNA cold hit linking defendant Mauricio Rosales to the 2000 rape of an 11-year-old girl inside her bedroom, the 2003 rape of a 19-year-old woman who had been sitting in front of her home and a robbery during which he sexually abused a woman. The defendant was charged with the four crimes and recently pleaded guilty to all charges. He is awaiting sentence.
Overall, the 2006 expansion resulted in over 2,600 new hits and evidence shows that DNA samples taken for low-level crimes unquestionably leads to the solving of major cases as illustrated above. Offenders who submitted DNA for petit larceny convictions after the 2006 expansion, for example, resulted in 845 hits connected to, among other crimes, 41 murders, 202 sexual assaults, 101 robberies and 360 burglaries. Samples collected from persons convicted of misdemeanor criminal trespass have been matched to 30 homicides and 103 sexual assaults.
Even with the power DNA has to enhance criminal justice, law enforcement data banks have always taken very seriously the privacy concerns of individuals. By design and by law, the DNA information used by law enforcement is no more invasive than a fingerprint.
A decade and a half of remarkable performance by the DNA data banks demonstrates that the time has come to fully expand the data bank to include all penal law offenses.