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Committee Questions Law Allowing DNA Sampling After Felony Arrest

Ynse
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/ynse/542370154/

If you’re arrested for a felony in Indiana, should the police automatically take a DNA sample to keep on file?  That’s the question a panel of lawmakers considered this week during a study committee hearing.

In Indiana, police input an offender’s DNA for comparison in a national database only after conviction of a felony.  So-called “DNA arrestee testing” laws would allow law enforcement to take those samples after a felony arrest. 

The effort to promote those laws has been spearheaded by Jayann Sepich, whose daughter’s killer was only identified three years later after he was convicted of another crime. 

Sepich notes he was arrested for something else 90 days after killing her daughter, and if his DNA had been taken then, she says not only could more crimes have been prevented, but money could have been saved:

“Two hundred thousand dollars could have been saved, because that’s how much money was spent investigating her case over those three years,” Sepich says.

But Indiana State Police counsel Brad Hoffeditz says the savings Sepich talks about wouldn’t help offset their new costs.  He says the state police lab would need at least $1 million more a year just to process all the new samples -- and that’s only a fraction of the costs to set up the system.  

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.
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