Action Alert: Stop Governor Martin O’Malley’s DNA Database of Innocent Citizens!
Picture this - one day you are arrested, but not convicted of a crime. Nonetheless, prior to any conviction, a DNA sample is taken from you to be included in a statewide criminal database. After your trial you are found innocent of all charges and yet the state still has your DNA in its criminal database. You then must go through a long and complicated process to get your DNA expunged from the criminal database - that is if and only if you meet certain criteria.
So what’s the problem? There are many, but the one that really gets me centers on the fact that the judicial system of this country and the state of Maryland is supposed to presume a person innocent until proven guilty. However, the collection of your DNA right away implicates you as GUILTY BEFORE TRIAL!
Governor Martin O’Malley is chomping at the bits to make this nightmare a reality with a bill that he is pushing through the state legislature entitled STATEWIDE DNA DATA BASE SYSTEM. (HB370 / SB211)
Under the guise of increasing public safety, O’Malley will essentially create a racially-biased genetic dragnet program which will disproportionally impact the African American and Latino communities. He is attempting to rush the bill to a vote before the general public has time to scrutinize it further.
O’Malley is pushing this bill so hard that even legislators don’t fully understand it.
Delegate Sandy Rosenberg (D-41) admits as much on his website:
I chaired the first meeting of the work group on the Governor’s bill to take DNA samples from people arrested for serious crimes.
Around the table were members of the Judiciary Committee, a delegate representing the Black Caucus, the lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union, and two of the Governor’s lobbyists…
Don’t ask me the details of what we agreed to during five hours of meetings today on the Governor’s DNA bill.
“I’m no good at science,” I once told my parents. Forty plus years later, my knowledge of biology isn’t much better. Plus, I’m no scholar when it comes to Maryland criminal procedure.
So I used my political science skills to chair three work sessions with delegates, legislative and executive branch staff, and prosecutors and defense lawyers. Shortly after 7 pm, we left smiling. When someone proposes an amendment, you can accept it, modify it, study it this summer, or reject it. We did some of each today. Sometimes, I proposed one of those options at the start of the discussion of a certain issue. More often, I waited for a consensus to develop and someone else to propose a solution.
I’ll bone up on the details of the bill by Thursday night or Friday afternoon. That’s when the Judiciary Committee will be voting on it.
Though Maryland is currently grappling with a $1.4 billion dollar deficit, Governor O’Malley is willing to devote more than $1.4 million dollars to create this DNA registry that rebuts the Fourth Amendment (prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures), the Eighth Amendment (prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment) and the presumption of innocence before guilt. What’s more local police departments will likely have trouble implementing this thing anyway! (according to state fiscal & policy notes)
In a city that has historically had problems with illegal arrests, the implications of this orwellian crime fighting strategy is abominable to say the least.
I join the Maryland NAACP, the Baltimore City Branch of the NAACP, the Prince George’s County Branch of the NAACP, the Maryland Chapter of the National Organization for Women, the Maryland Innocence Coalition, the ACLU of Maryland, the Coalition of Maryland Ministerial Alliances, and the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland in OPPOSING THE GOVERNOR’S DNA DATABASE BILL!
IMMEDIATE ACTION IS NEEDED ON THIS BILL.
I ask you to join me in opposition. You can help by doing any number of the following.
