The leader of a movement to take DNA samples from all people arrested for felonies visited Carlsbad today. Her visit came as California's DNA sampling law faces a legal challenge.
Katie Sepich, 22, was raped and murdered in New Mexico in 2003. Katie's mom, Jayann Sepich, says a DNA match identified her daughter's killer. And the crime prompted her to found a group called DNA Saves.
Monday, Sepich visited Carlsbad's Life Technologies Corporation, which manufactures forensic DNA kits. Sepich believes many criminals would be caught, and not allowed to re-offend if the DNA samples were taken from all people arrested for felonies.
"It's no different from a fingerprint," Sepich said. "It's only used for identification and there's no private information that can be disclosed through the database."
Even so, the ACLU has challenged California's law that requires genetic sampling of arrestees as an invasion of privacy. Jayann Sepich says 23 states, and the federal government, take DNA samples from suspects upon arrest.
