More Aggressive Action from New York On DNA Databases
This proposal is moving slowly through the state legislature. It seems to be a bit too slow for some. Which may be why State Division of Criminal Justice Service Acting Commissioner Sean M. Byrne is taking things in his own hands. In August, he sent a letter to each one of New York’s district attorneys “strongly encourag[ing] [them] to require a DNA sample as a condition of all plea bargains.”
Byrne argues that this measure – in effect, an end run around the legislature’s deliberations – is a “stop gap remedy to Albany gridlock” that closes a “gaping and dangerous loophole.” According to his numbers, 54 percent of people convicted of NY penal code violations do not submit DNA samples.
This shift in policy means that New Yorkers who plead to a lesser offense that might not, by law, require submitting a DNA sample are now submitting such samples simply because DAs have been instructed to make it part of the plea deal.
The bar for including individuals’ DNA in forensic databases woefully drops again.