The House of Delegates gave preliminary approval yesterday to a bill that would allow police to collect DNA samples from criminal suspects, though the O'Malley administration plan was amended to ease black lawmakers' concerns about how the biological fingerprints might be used.
House members approved the bill on a voice vote, ending three days of intense negotiations that at one point prompted African-American delegates to walk out of a Democratic caucus meeting in protest. The Senate is scheduled to take up the bill Monday.
A top priority of Gov. Martin O'Malley, the bill would allow police to collect DNA samples from those charged with violent crimes and burglary; currently, samples are taken after a conviction. Eleven other states have similar laws, and state and local law enforcement authorities say adopting the bill would help them catch more serial offenders and prevent crimes.
In an effort to ease concerns of civil libertarians, the bill had already been amended by the Judiciary Committee to narrow its scope and to provide for automatic expunction of DNA samples in some cases.
But members of the Legislative Black Caucus sought even more changes to ensure that DNA samples are not kept in the state's database if the suspect is not convicted and to facilitate the use of newly collected or analyzed DNA evidence to overturn false convictions.
Del. Aisha N. Braveboy, the black caucus secretary who coordinated the group's negotiations, said she was "very pleased" with the amendments. She predicted that the vast majority of the House's 32 African-American members would support the bill when it comes up for final vote today or early next week.
Key senators met with O'Malley's aides yesterday to determine whether to accept the House's amendments. Rejecting them could lead to a contentious cross-chamber debate.
Braveboy, a Prince George's County Democrat, said the caucus wanted to make sure the expanded DNA database would be used to help exonerate those wrongly accused as well as to catch more criminals.
"Our interest was to create the balance," she said.
While DNA evidence may be a great tool for police and prosecutors, she said, "it should be used to its fullest extent, which includes both finding and convicting people who are guilty and making sure police aren't arresting the wrong people and keeping them in jail for inordinate amounts of time - and also making sure that people who are innocent are let go."
