By Hector Flores
Police then searched the state¹s DNA database and matched the DNA sample to Gregory Williams, a convicted felon who had been released from the state prison system. Police arrested Williams, who was later found guilty of kidnapping and rape. In September 2005, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
At a news conference June 5, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, a Democrat, said the case illustrates why anyone convicted of a felony or misdemeanor should be added to the state¹s DNA databank. Joining Rice at the lectern was County Executive Thomas Suozzi, a Democrat of Glen Cove.
There is, in fact, a bill now in the Assembly that would create such an ³all-crimes² DNA databank, sponsored by the Assembly¹s Republican minority, including David McDonough of North Merrick and Tom McKevitt of East Meadow. The state Senate has already passed the measure.
McDonough hopes the Assembly will vote on the bill before the close of the current legislative session, which ends next week. ³An expanded DNA database is in effect in many other states and has proven to be valuable in finding criminals and exonerating those who have been falsely accused in the past,² McDonough said in a telephone interview. ³To me, it¹s the same as fingerprints, and DNA has proven its accuracy many times over. The Republican conference is calling for this bill to be put forth for a vote.²
Cisa Moyo, spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat of Manhattan, said the Assembly¹s Democratic leadership continues to work with Gov. George Pataki, a Republican, and the GOP-controlled state Senate to write tougher crime legislation. ³We have called for a conference committee forum to negotiate the [DNA databank] bill,² she said. Specifically, Democrats want to make sure any collected DNA samples are destroyed if a suspect is found innocent at trial, the same way fingerprints are currently destroyed.
Moyo added that collecting DNA samples takes time, and there¹s now a backlog of DNA samples yet to be processed. ³We want to make sure that samples are processed quickly,² she said.
McKevitt is cautiously optimistic that the bill will be voted on in the next week. ³There are 15,000 crimes committed in New York where there is DNA evidence left from the suspect,² he said. ³If we had a more comprehensive database, we feel that many of these crimes would be solved. We are waiting, and this bill is on the top of the agenda.²
At Monday¹s news conference, Rice said, ³We are gathered for a simple reason ‹ to support common-sense legislation that improves our ability to fight crime and exonerate the wrongfully convicted.²
Rice said that the bill, which Pataki proposed, would also eliminate the statute of limitations in cases where DNA evidence was established. And it would appropriate funds for an Innocence Project Program, which would use DNA testing to exonerate those who were wrongfully convicted of crimes.
³This bill is long overdue,² Rice said. ³We have a governor who has provided the funding for the proposal, and we have a statewide law-enforcement agency that will administer and manage the change. We need to act now for the sake of the victims of unsolved crimes, for the future victims of crimes and for the wrongfully convicted.²
So far, 43 states have expanded their DNA databases, which has helped solve a number of crimes, according to Rice.
Chauncey Parker, state commissioner of criminal justice services, said DNA is currently collected in one out of every seven arrests, but if everyone convicted of a serious crime gave a DNA sample, a number of unsolved cases would be broken.
Parker used the example of a man who raped three girls in a month at a bus stop in Rochester. The man was later convicted of drug possession, a misdemeanor. Had there been access to his DNA, he would have been arrested for the rapes. Instead, he was released, and a month later he attacked a 13-year-old girl and then a woman in Alabama.
³If we had had access to his DNA after the misdemeanor arrest, we could have run it against the unsolved case database and linked him to the attacks on the three girls,² Parker said. ³We could have also prevented the later attacks on the 13-year-old girl and the woman from Alabama. Example after example, we see how an expanded DNA database could have helped solve crimes or prevented them. This is not a political issue. It¹s about protecting the people that live in our communities.²
Parker said the bill has passed the state Senate for seven straight years, but has yet to come to the Assembly floor for a vote. ³If the bill was passed, we wouldn¹t have to wait for the fifth crime to catch a criminal,² he said.
Suozzi, who is running for governor, called the failure to pass the all-crimes DNA database bill a disgrace. ³This is an outrage,² he said. ³Last summer, there was a string of home invasions, and the perpetrators were arrested thanks to the use of DNA evidence. It is the Democrats in the Assembly that haven¹t allowed this bill to be passed. It is time that we hold them accountable for their actions, and if they don¹t pass this very important legislation, then they should not be allowed to represent us.²
