LITTLE ROCK, Ark.—An Arkansas legislative committee endorsed a bill Tuesday that would require police to collect DNA samples following certain felony arrests, after hearing from JonBenet Ramsey’s father that the measure will stop criminals.
John Ramsey, who now lives in Little Rock, told the House Judiciary Committee that he became interested in DNA databases after the 1996 slaying in Boulder, Colo., of his 6-year-old daughter, JonBenet.
“I believe with all sincerity that this will be a law in all states, without a doubt. It’s progressing rapidly,” Ramsey said. “It needs to be sooner rather than later, because we will prevent crime.”
The committee advanced the measure to the full House on a voice vote. The bill by Rep. Dawn Creekmore, D-East End, calls for DNA samples to be collected from people arrested on suspicion of capital murder, first-degree murder, kidnapping and first- or second-degree sexual assault.
Under current state law, a DNA sample is collected after a person is convicted of a crime. Creekmore’s original measure called for the collection of DNA after any felony arrest; she amended it to restrict it to the five crimes because of cost issues, she said.
“This will not cause a backlog for the crime lab,” Creekmore said. “Our state Crime Lab has four very fancy machines that can test up to 84 DNA samples per machine at a time.”
Under the bill, people who were arrested can petition to have their DNA samples removed from the database if they are acquitted or never charged with a crime. Creekmore said 15 states have similar laws requiring DNA collection upon arrest.
Creekmore’s bill is named for Juli Busken, a 21-year-old from Benton who was kidnapped and murdered while she was a student at the University of Oklahoma.
Busken disappeared from her Norman, Okla., apartment complex in 1996 and was later found dead on the shore of Lake Stanley Draper in far southeast Oklahoma City.
It was several years before a match was made with DNA in semen stains found on Busken’s clothing. In 2004, state investigators matched that profile with one taken from Anthony Castillo Sanchez when he entered the prison system on a burglary conviction.
Sanchez was convicted in 2006 and sentenced to death.
Busken’s mother, Mary Jean, urged lawmakers to approve the measure “so that we can save all the other Julis out there.”
“It may be your wife, your daughter, your mother, your niece. Please help us,” she said.
