COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 423
(By Senators Jones, Plymale, Holliday and Anderson)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported April 2, 1993.]
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A BILL to amend article two, chapter fifteen of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
by adding thereto a new section, designated section
twenty-four-a, relating to requiring blood sampling for DNA
law enforcement identification purposes from certain
persons; establishing a centralized database for DNA
identification records; criminal penalties; and crime and
punishment.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article two, chapter fifteen of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section
twenty-four-a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY.
§15-2-24a. Establishment of centralized database of DNA
identification records in division of public safety.
(a) A centralized database of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)
identification records for convicted felons, shall be established
in the division of public safety under the direction, control andsupervision of the division of public safety criminal
identification bureau forensic laboratory. The established
system shall be compatible with the procedures set forth in a
national DNA identification index to ensure data exchange on a
national level.
(b) The purpose of the centralized DNA database is to assist
federal, state and local criminal justice and law-enforcement
agencies within and outside the state in the identification,
detection or exclusion of individuals who are subjects of the
investigation or prosecution of sex-related crimes, violent
crimes or other crimes and the identification and location of
missing and unidentified persons.
(c) In any trial conducted in this state after the first day
of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-three, when the
defendant is convicted and when evidence of the DNA of the
defendant is introduced, the prosecuting attorney shall forward
the results of the test to the division of public safety for
entry in the database.
(d) Records produced from the samples shall be used only for
law-enforcement purposes.
(e) A person whose DNA profile has been included in the data
bank pursuant to this section may request expungement on the
grounds that the felony conviction on which the authority for
including the DNA profile was based has been reversed and the
case dismissed. The division of public safety shall expunge all
identifiable information in the data bank pertaining to the
person and destroy all samples from the person upon receipt of:
(1) A written request for expungement pursuant to thissection; and
(2) A certified copy of the court order reversing and
dismissing the conviction or providing for expungement.
(f) The superintendent of the division of public safety
shall promulgate administrative rules necessary to carry out the
provisions of the DNA database identification system to include
procedures for the database system usage and integrity.
(g) Any person who disseminates, receives or otherwise uses
or attempts to use information in the database, knowing that such
dissemination, receipt or use is for a purpose other than
authorized by law, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon
conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than fifty dollars
nor more than five hundred dollars, or imprisoned in the county
jail not more than one year, or both fined and imprisoned.