{"id":2503,"date":"2024-01-26T14:13:10","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T14:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/26\/west-virginia-legislators-reject-bill-to-expand-law-enforcement-database-of-dna\/"},"modified":"2024-01-26T14:13:10","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T14:13:10","slug":"west-virginia-legislators-reject-bill-to-expand-law-enforcement-database-of-dna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/26\/west-virginia-legislators-reject-bill-to-expand-law-enforcement-database-of-dna\/","title":{"rendered":"West Virginia legislators reject bill to expand law enforcement database of DNA"},"content":{"rendered":"

West Virginia lawmakers<\/a> on Thursday soundly rejected a bill that would have expanded a law enforcement database to include collecting DNA samples from people arrested for certain felonies.<\/p>\n

Some legislators cited privacy concerns during a lengthy debate before the 66-30 vote by the Republican-dominated House of Delegates. Three members were absent.<\/p>\n

“This is just another step away from our liberties,” said Republican Del. Rolland Jennings of Preston County.<\/p>\n

DNA EVIDENCE IDENTIFIES LAST KNOWN VICTIM OF GREEN RIVER KILLER ALMOST 40 YEARS LATER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Current state law requires a DNA sample to be taken<\/a> from anyone convicted of a felony and certain misdemeanors. The bill would have expanded the law to obtain DNA through cheek swabs from adults arrested on felony charges of violence against someone, a burglary or a case involving a minor. The samples would be sent to a state crime lab and the results stored in an FBI database.<\/p>\n

“If you don\u2019t want your DNA taken, don\u2019t do a heinous crime,” said Republican Del. Scot Heckert, a bill supporter.<\/p>\n

But some Democrats were concerned about the bill\u2019s potential infringement on Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.<\/p>\n

“This bill is extremely broad,” Ohio County Democrat Shawn Fluharty said. “It\u2019s dangerous territory to put people in a DNA database simply because they\u2019ve been arrested just for probable cause and accused of a crime.”<\/p>\n

Mason County Republican Jonathan Pinson, a bill supporter, said it was no more of a constitutional concern than collecting fingerprints<\/a> from suspects. Pinson said lawmakers should be more concerned about helping crime victims whose cases remain unsolved “because we don’t know where to look” for evidence.<\/p>\n

The bill also contained steps to expunge someone’s DNA records from the database if they were cleared of the felony charges.<\/p>\n

Prior to the vote, the House twice rejected bids to halt debate on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

West Virginia lawmakers on Thursday soundly rejected a bill that would have expanded a law enforcement database to include collecting DNA samples from people arrested for certain felonies. Some legislators cited privacy concerns during a lengthy debate before the 66-30 vote by the Republican-dominated House of Delegates. Three members were absent. “This is just another … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}