Senate Bill 988
MANDATING PRE-CONVICTION DNA COLLECTION
Senate Bill 988 Bill Information
Description: SB 988 would amend Pennsylvania's laws on DNA data and testing, further providing for the state's DNA database, the collection of DNA samples from certain arrested, convicted, or adjudicated individuals, and the exchange and expungement of DNA data. Key provisions include requiring DNA sample collection upon arrest for certain offenses like criminal homicide and felony sex crimes, authorizing "modified DNA searches" to identify close relatives of individuals in the database, and establishing procedures for the expungement of DNA records in certain circumstances.
PA Justice Alliance Member Positions & Feedback
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Pennsylvania currently collects DNA samples from people convicted of hundreds of different crimes. SB 988 would expand DNA collection to require anyone arrested for one of those offenses, many of which are non-violent crimes, to submit a DNA sample to police—including samples from juveniles.
SB 988 proposes a massive expansion of genetic surveillance—seizing DNA from people who are presumed innocent under the law, turning them into permanent suspects.
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Amistad Law Project opposes SB 988 (PN 1654). SB 988 would vastly increase government surveillance of communities across Pennsylvania by requiring adults and juveniles who were arrested, but not yet convicted of a crime to submit DNA samples.
Under SB 988 arrests for hundreds of offenses, many of them non-violent, would force people to submit their genetic information to the authorities. Our system of law centers the presumption that you are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law and we should not force citizens to provide their genetic material, which contains intimate details about their person, to be put on file merely because they are suspected of a crime. Moreover, this legislation will lead to greater surveillance of Black and brown communities since Black and brown people are targeted for arrest at disproportionately higher rates than their white counterparts. Since your genetic information is by nature relational this is an invasion of privacy that extends to one’s family.
For all of these reasons and more we would like to register our opposition to SB 988. We thank you in advance for considering our position.
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PDAP opposes SB 988 because no person should have DNA taken from them for a mere arrest. In criminal courts, each person is presumed to be innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Instead, SB 988 presumes guilt, by sanctioning the massive government intrusion on individual freedom of taking DNA—a piece of a person inherently individual to them.
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SB 988 would expand DNA collection to require adults and juveniles submit DNA samples at the time of arrest—before someone is even charged or convicted of the crime.
SB 988 would undermine the presumption of innocence by collapsing a cardinal principle of our criminal legal system that every person is presumed to be innocent unless proven guilty.
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The usefulness of DNA post-trial in exonerating wrongly convicted innocent people is only likely to decrease as pre-trial DNA testing is now the norm. Expanding Pennsylvania’s database to include recent arrestee profiles is unlikely to assist in examining older cases of potential wrongful conviction where untested DNA evidence may still exist. It is well known that people “age out” of committing violent crimes, so logically, this translates to a decrease in the potential usefulness of current DNA profiles for investigating crimes committed more than 10, 15, 20 years ago.
The limited usefulness of an expanded DNA database in remedying wrongful convictions should be balanced against the potential costs, including the infringement on the pre-trial presumption of innocence inherent in uploading arrestee profiles and the likelihood that such a broad expansion will disproportionately impact people of color, who are overrepresented throughout the criminal legal system, including among those wrongly convicted.
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