Senator Girgenti in the News
Girgenti Measure Gives State's Essential DNA Program Permanent Source Of Funding
December 15, 2008
TRENTON – Legislation sponsored by Senate Assistant Majority Leader John A. Girgenti, Chairman of the Senate Law and Public Safety and Veterans’ Affairs Committee, to secure permanent funding for the State’s DNA Program, was signed into law on December 15, 2008 by Governor Corzine.
“DNA technology has been an indispensable medium in the positive identification of criminals in a substantial amount of unsolved cases throughout the nation. It has also been an invaluable asset to law enforcement in the evaluation of suspects under investigation, and the exoneration of those who were wrongfully accused,” said Senator Girgenti, D-Bergen and Passaic. “Because of the sizable expansion of the program on both the federal and state levels over the years to include all crimes of the first through the fourth degree, The New Jersey State Police Office of Forensic Sciences was required to obtain a permanent source of funding to cover increased expenses.”
Enacted in 1994, the DNA Database and Databank Act was initially created to catalog DNA profiles of adults who were convicted of, or attempted to commit, a sexual offense. Only four years earlier, the FBI had begun a pilot program to archive such data; it was known as the Combined DNA Index System, or by its appropriate acronym, “CODIS.” The Legislature subsequently expanded the act in 1997 to be inclusive of juveniles who were convicted of the same offenses enumerated in the 1994 legislation, including those found not guilty by reason of insanity. Then, in 2000, the act was amended further to cover more egregious offenses such as murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault, kidnapping, etc. In 2003, the act was amended to include all indictable crimes, the form it is in presently.
Accordingly, a supplemental source of revenue was created to buttress the existing federal grants and state appropriations. This came in the form of an entirely new provision within the 2003 amendment which imposed a two dollar surcharge on motor vehicle infractions that would be allocated to the New Jersey Forensic DNA Laboratory Fund, an entity created exclusively for, and in conjunction with, this new provision.
However, when the amendment was enacted, it was done so with a five year sunset provision on the surcharge. This meant that five years after the provision was made effective, it would expire totally. This would essentially leave no guaranteed funding mechanism for the program, unless the surcharge was made permanent. Fortunately, included in the sunset provision was a section that required the Attorney General to report on the effectiveness of the program no later than six months before its expiration.
On June 24, 2008, The Office of the Attorney General, Division of Criminal Justice, released its Report on the Collection & Use of DNA Samples, assessing the program’s effectiveness and contribution to case resolution in the criminal justice system. It identified New Jersey as ranking tenth in the number of convicted offender profiles uploaded to the National DNA Index System (NDIS) in the country. As of April 30th 2008, a total of 171,195 DNA profiles have been uploaded to the NDIS since the inception of the CODIS Program by the FBI in 1990. Presently, CODIS is operative in all fifty states.
“As Chairman of the Senate Law & Public Safety and Veterans’ Affairs Committee, I have been dedicated to equipping our law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to be effective and efficient in the administration of their duties. Having the ability to harness DNA technology as a means of identifying suspects and repeat offenders is unassailably critical to upholding the integrity of the criminal justice system in our contemporary society.”