'Juli's Law' To Expand DNA Clears House

A measure that would greatly expand the state's DNA database and help solve more crimes overwhelmingly cleared the House today.

Senate Bill 2041, by Reps. Randy Terrill, Lee Denney and Skye McNiel, would create "Juli's Law" and require any persons who are arrested for a felony but found guilty of at least a misdemeanor, any persons found guilty of a list of twenty specifically enumerated violent misdemeanors and any convicted sex offenders to submit a DNA sample to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database.

Under current law, any person convicted of a felony must submit a DNA sample.

"By expanding our local and state DNA databases, we are greatly enhancing law enforcement's ability to solve more cases and convict more criminals," said Terrill, R-Moore. "The fact is most violent criminals commit more than one violent crime. Our forensic science has advanced to the point where we can solve almost all crimes; the problem is that we don't have enough DNA samples to compare to forensic evidence found at the scene of the crime. This bill will help bridge that gap."

The bill is named for Juli Busken, the University of Oklahoma ballet student who was murdered in 1996 in Norman. Busken's murder was finally solved through a cold hit on the DNA database in July 2004 when an illegal alien named Anthony Sanchez was arrested on unrelated charges in Cleveland County. Sanchez was convicted of first degree murder, rape and sodomy and sentenced to death.

The measure also requires convicted persons to pay a fee of $150 to OSBI for the testing and storage of the DNA sample.

"This measure builds on the commitment Republicans made to our citizens to make our state a safer and better place to live, work, raise a family and retire," said Denney, R-Cushing. "This bill is good news for citizens and bad news for criminals. Recidivism among violent criminals is almost a given, and by expanding our DNA database, we are ensuring that at some point these criminals will be caught and convicted."

CODIS is the Federal Bureau of Investigation's national DNA database, which allows local, state and federal crime labs to exchange and compare DNA profiles by electronic means to solve crimes across jurisdictional and state lines. OSBI is responsible for maintaining the Oklahoma CODIS database.

Since CODIS was created in 1990, more than 4 million forensic and convicted offender profiles have been entered into the system. Through January 2007, according to the FBI's CODIS Web site, there were nearly 45,000 cases in 49 states and two federal laboratories where CODIS added value to the investigative process.

Approximately 170 public law enforcement laboratories are linked through the CODIS network across the United States. Internationally, more than 40 law enforcement laboratories in over 25 countries use the CODIS software for their own database initiatives.

"The ultimate measure of a law enforcement program's success is whether it is making our citizens and their property safer," said McNiel, R-Bristow. "CODIS has taken violent criminals and sex offenders off the street, and is now even being used to solve property crimes and identify missing persons. The DNA database works, and our citizens deserves to know that their elected officials are taking advantage of every opportunity to protect them from crime."

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