All felons convicted in Illinois would have to submit saliva or tissue specimens to the Illinois State Police for cataloging in a statewide DNA database, under a measure passed by a House committee Thursday.
The database would help the state agency compile a more comprehensive collection to aid police and prosecutors in investigations and trials.
“This is as much for the accused as for the victim,” said House Republican Leader Lee Daniels of Elmhurst, the sponsor of the bill. “With DNA evidence, we’ve been able to convict the guilty and free people who were wrongly accused.”
Under current law, anyone convicted of a sexual offense or designated as a “sexually dangerous person” in an Illinois court has to submit a blood sample for inclusion in the DNA database.
But Daniels’ measure would expand the list to include anyone convicted in the state of a felony as well as any person currently incarcerated in the Department of Corrections.
The proposal would no longer require blood to be drawn for the DNA samples, allowing state police to use saliva or tissue instead. At a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday, state police officials said they support the idea but are concerned how to pay for it.
Proposed by DuPage County State’s Atty. Joe Birkett, a candidate for the Republican nomination for Illinois attorney general, the measure now goes to the full House for consideration.
House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), whose daughter is running for the Democratic nomination for Illinois attorney general, said that he expects the bill to be considered but that he hasn’t yet made up his mind about it.
“I don’t have a lot of knowledge about the area,” he said.
Meantime Thursday, Daniels pleaded with Gov. George Ryan to spare the Lincoln Developmental Center, a residential facility for the disabled in central Illinois.
In a letter sent days after Ryan announced he would keep open a facility for the disabled in Chicago, Daniels said he shares the concerns of some state officials about the quality of care in the center. But he told Ryan he is worried about the distress that closure might cause the current residents and their families.
Ryan has said he has “mixed feelings” about the center and isn’t sure what to do about it.
