DNA Bill Passes as (MD) Legislature Adjourns: Collecting DNA from people who are innocent under law

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Restraint In Bleak Times For Md.
DNA Bill Passes as Legislature Adjourns

In its final hours before adjournment, the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill yesterday expanding the collection of DNA from crime suspects but balked at authorizing speed cameras in school zones and neighborhoods, capping a session in which the state's continuing fiscal challenges greatly shaped what was attempted and what occurred.

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The casualties of budget cuts made during the regular session included a new Chesapeake Bay cleanup fund. Lawmakers had planned an initial allocation of $50 million to the fund but scaled back the amount to $25 million. Other new spending initiatives were relatively modest. Even O'Malley's leading public safety proposal -- an expansion of the state's DNA database to include samples taken during arrests for violent crimes and burglaries -- has a relatively small fiscal effect: about $1 million a year in state funds. Lawmakers reached a compromise on that bill yesterday afternoon and sent it to O'Malley.

The DNA legislation cleared both chambers by large margins but continued to draw objections from some lawmakers, who questioned why the state would move away from its policy of taking samples at the time of conviction.

"We're taking DNA from people who are innocent under law," said Sen. Alex X. Mooney (R-Frederick).

Washington Post