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New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is hoping to expand the state’s DNA database to include those who have been convicted of any misdemeanor. Currently, the database only contains samples from individuals convicted of mostly serious crimes.

According to the governor, the expansion would serve a twofold purpose: protecting the innocent and prosecuting the guilty.

“This legislation will help us bring the guilty to justice and exonerate those who have been wrongly accused,” Spitzer said.

If passed, the bill would require those convicted on all felony and misdemeanor charges to submit their DNA to the database. It would also make it easier for defendants in criminal cases to prove their innocence through DNA testing.

DNA evidence has in recent years become a crucial element in exoneration cases. The Innocence Project states that DNA evidence has exonerated 23 people convicted of crimes in New York and more than 200 across the country.

However, DNA collection is also an effective tool for prosecutors and other law enforcement officials who are able to secure convictions based on such evidence.

The new legislation would give prosecutors more time—up to five years—to press charges in cases where collected DNA evidence has yet to be matched to a sample in the database.

New York’s DNA database, which was launched in 2000, now has about 250,000 samples. In the beginning, most of those samples were obtained from sex offenders and those convicted of certain felonies. Over the last three years, the database has been expanded twice to include some misdemeanors and all felonies.

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/nyregion/14dna.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin)

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