A new Rhode Island law is requiring the state crime lab to audit its DNA databank to determine how many offender profiles are missing.
The databank is used to search previously-collected profiles for DNA matches with evidence collected from crime scenes, which could identify potential suspects. The bill's sponsors say due to loopholes in the justice system, many offenders' samples are never submitted.
State Representative John Edwards says survivors of sexual assault and the families of murder victims deserve nothing less than a databank that includes all of the profiles it is supposed to have.
“The databank can only find matches for the DNA of those who have been entered into it. Survivors of sexual assault and the families of murder victims deserve nothing less than a databank that includes all the profiles it is supposed to have, raising the chances that it could identify a match and provide them some measure of justice,” said Representative Edwards (D-Dist. 70, Tiverton).
No hearings have been announced as of yet.
(Photo by HECTOR RIO/AFP via Getty Images)
Photo: HECTOR RIO / AFP / Getty Images