The Williamson County District Attorney's Office has announced they will now be collecting DNA samples from all felony probationers for the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a database with DNA profiles collected from laboratories across the country.

Details.

[Have your judges started adding this condition?]

Another interested party just called me today about some ideas on this very topic.

Here's an article he sent me:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125167372604370775.html

And here's another article about dedicated police work and CODIS data in LA leading to the capture of the Westside Rapist.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/30/local/me-serial30 :

Webb, who heads an LAPD unit responsible for tracking the whereabouts of sex offenders, suggested a new tack: Though most of the roughly 5,200 sex offenders registered in Los Angeles comply with a requirement to submit DNA samples to authorities for input into state databases, many have slipped through the cracks. The officers in Webb's group fanned out across the city to track down men who possibly fit the killer's profile and to collect DNA samples for comparison to evidence left behind by the killer.

The plan worked.

Just not in the way Kilcoyne had intended.

Check your email.

Also, let me note that veteran prosecutor Phil Hall of our office just finished a stranger cold case violent aggravated sexual assault that happened in 2004. A CODIS hit from a recently incarcerated state jail inmate solved the crime.

Phil did an excellent job on the case and got a 25/55 year sentences on the two counts. These sentences insure that this predator won't be back on the streets for a very long time.

[This message was edited by Greg Gilleland on 09-03-09 at .]

I've gotten some questions on this.

Here is the wording of our condition: "Defendant shall submit a buccal swab DNA sample to the community Supervision Officer in charge of their case."

We impose the condition in post-convicction and deferred adjudication community supervision. SB 727 mandates the condition for post-conviction but does not prohibit for deferred. There is a provision that authorizes collection of a fee if it is imposed in deferred.

That has been a standard condition of all felony probations (straight and deferred) in our county for at least three years - maybe longer. We can't remember when we started it.

JB-

Does your county use that just for felony pleas, or for misdemeanors too?

My office covers felony cases only, and our district judges have agreed to enter those orders in felony cases. The misdemeanor judges, as far as I know, have not begun to do the same. I think it would be supportable, although not required.

For a story on how WC is collecting DNA, click here.

Is your probation department collecting DNA in felony cases? It can make a difference in protecting your community.

Our probation dept. has raised some issues about funding this right now.. Section 51.607 Govt. Code seems to preclude collection of the associated fees (as court costs?)until Jan 1.....Is anybody ordering it as a special fee as condition of probation, ordering it payable as a court cost between jan 1 and some date, or what?

Our condition states

Submit your DNA sample to the Department of Public Safety under Government Code, Chapter 411, Subchapter G, for the purpose of establishing a DNA record, under the direction of the community supervision department and at your own expense.

Has anyone ever been revoked for failing to give a sample?

To my knowledge no one has ever failed or refused to provide the sample.