The proposal is criticized as a threat to privacy.

01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, June 1, 2004

BY SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
Journal State House Bureau

PROVIDENCE -- Convicted felons would have their DNA entered into a database under legislation passed last week by the Senate.

Currently, only violent criminals are placed in a federal database, but a measure sponsored by Sen. Michael J. Damiani would expand the database to all felons. And, unlike current law, this bill would retroactively affect anyone convicted since July 1, 2001.

A similar bill introduced last year by Damiani, at the request of Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, passed the Senate but died in the House.

This bill, like past moves to expand DNA testing, said Damiani, D-East Providence, is a way for wrongly convicted felons to overturn their sentences.

"This bill would create a [complete] database of DNA, much the same way a database of fingerprints was created more than a century ago," said Damiani, a retired police officer. "DNA is the most important thing to come along in the criminal justice system in the last century. The good thing about DNA is it's absolute. It exonerates as many people as it convicts."

Senators Rhoda E. Perry and Juan M. Pichardo, both Providence Democrats, were the only people to vote against the bill.

"It is a threat to our privacy. The misuse of data is a reality. . . DNA as evidence is not analogous to a fingerprint," Perry said. "Fingerprints can be used for identification purposes only. DNA contains a host of other private information about ethnicity, family history, relationships, propensity for diseases. DNA from one person can even expose information about that person's blood relatives."

Currently, anybody convicted of a "crime of violence," as described in the state weapons law, is included in the DNA database. Some of those crimes are: murder, manslaughter, rape, first- or second-degree sexual assault, first- or second-degree child molestation, kidnapping, first- or second-degree arson, breaking and entering, and assault with a dangerous weapon.

DNA is normally obtained by rubbing a swab against the inside of the mouth and Damiani said the federal government would cover the cost.

Perry, however, said the bill would infringe on someone's due process, especially because of the retroactivity, and that there is a strong possibility for the misuse of the data.

"Even if the purpose of the data collection is limited now, history consistently shows that information collected by the government for one purpose inevitably gets for broader purposes," she said.

One example Perry cited is the expanded use of Social Security numbers.

The DNA database was "originally limited to sex offenders on the theory that they have a high rate of recidivism. . . Then it was expanded to other violent criminals," Perry said. "Now it is proposed for any felon, many of whom who are convicted on non-violent offenses such as taking shellfish at night, defacing a gravestone . . . and shoplifting an article worth over a $100."