Oct 21 2008
Republicans Override Sanford on DNA Collection Veto
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Felony suspects will now have DNA samples taken when they’re arrested, after the South Carolina House on Tuesday joined the Senate in overriding Gov. Mark Sanford’s veto of a bill requiring the procedure.
The samples would be taken when people are arrested for felonies, as well as for eavesdropping or peeping, which are misdemeanors on first offense and felonies thereafter.
The House’s 86-25 vote came after the Senate’s 38-0 override Monday and despite objections from state Rep. Chris Hart, a Columbia Democrat who said the legislation is intrusive and too expensive.
“We need to get government out of the lives of people,” Hart said. “This bill grows government.”
You know you’ve got a sorry ass bunch of Republicans in Columbia when a Democrat is criticizing them of endorsing intrusive government. This override is unbelievable. An arrest does not make someone guilty, yet the state will treat you no different than a criminal under this bill. And it gets better.
Sanford and the American Civil Liberties Union have complained, too, that the legislation will leave DNA information in government databases when people aren’t convicted.
While the new law allows the destruction of the information, people must ask for it, and could be forced to pay for it, Hart said. Meanwhile, the sample itself would be kept and there is no requirement to destroy DNA data kept in a federal database.
So if you’re wrongly arrested in South Carolina and you want your DNA sample destroyed they may bill you for it. What the hell kind of bonehead would vote for something like this? 80% of the state legislature, that’s who. The first person who gets wrongly arrested and is told they have to pay to have their DNA sample destroyed needs to go straight to the ACLU office in Charleston, hire a lawyer, and file a lawsuit against the state. More government intrusion from your “small-government” Republicans.
The State Senate voted unanimously to strengthen the police state. In the House, 25 legislators stood up for your rights. They are:
- Paul Agnew (D-Abbeville)
- Carl Anderson (D-Georgetown)
- William Bowers (D-Hampton)
- Lester Branham (D-Florence)
- Floyd Breeland (D-Charleston)
- Robert Brown (D-Hollywood)
- William Clyburn (D-Aiken)
- Gilda Cobb-Hunter (D-Orangeburg)
- Nikki Haley (R-Lexington)
- Glenn Hamilton (R-Taylors)
- Chris Hart (D-Columbia)
- Cathy Harvin (D-Summerton)
- Lonnie Hosey (D-Barnwell)
- Joseph Jefferson (D-Pineville)
- Keith Kelly (R-Woodruff)
- Kenneth Kennedy (D-Greeleyville)
- Herb Kirsh (D-Clover)
- Dwight Loftis (R-Greenville)
- Mick Mulvaney (R-Indian Land)
- Joseph Neal (D-Hopkins)
- Jimmy Neal (D-Kershaw)
- Todd Rutherford (R-Columbia)
- Phillip Shoopman (R-Greer)
- Garry Smith (R-Simpsonville)
- David Weeks (D-Sumter)
