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.