good afternoon i want to welcome everybody to schenectady city hall gary mccarthy that it's a pleasure to be here today with friends and colleagues in law enforcement as we take this opportunity to help explain and support the governor's proposal to expand the d n a database in new york state d n a has been a key component in crime fighting over the last decade and it continues to be a tremendous investigative tool and the ability to expand this database i believe will add as a deterrent for those individuals who have the p and like now to introduce our district attorney robert carney who has served with distinction for not quite twenty years twenty two years that's all right well thank you all for coming we're here today to show that law enforcement in schenectady county is one hundred percent behind governor cuomo in this very very significant law enforcement initiative to expand the d n a data bank to take swabs from everyone who's convicted of a crime we currently under the penal law and all felon felonies under all other laws we currently  a from about forty eight percent of convicted defendants this would capture the other fifty two percent who wouldn't add some less than four hundred misdemeanors and it would include things such as felony dwi an aggravated animal cruelty which we all know and see as a gateway to other violent crimes against humans we're going to hear from several speakers in the law enforcement community i'd just like to take a second to acknowledge those that are here that you aren't going to hear separately speak we have our sh i we have chief john lu brant deputy chief stand from minsky thank also like to acknowledge support that the governor has had and that we have had in this community on this very issue from the new york state senate and also from the daily gazette which is one of the first newspapers in the state to editorialize in favor of this so we thank you for that so why do we support the governor in expanding the data bank first it is absolutely clear to all of us professionals in the field that d n a data bank hits bring violent criminals to justice just this last october i tried a case in this county a man named wade in a comment who  committed a home invasion a violent home invasion when he was massed in hooded you're going to hear a little later from the victim of that crime i'm not going to talk about her experiences she can describe them obviously better than anybody else because she lived through them but we do know that good work was done police work at the scene blood was found and as a result months later there was a hit in the data bank and that enabled us to identify this man and enabled us to figure out who was accomplices were in the home invasion and all of that was a direct link to proving that nine days later using that same handgun he attempted to rob a deli on eastern avenue where he pistol whipped a customer laurel tear causing her death so the d n a data bank not only identified this man in the home invasion but helped us have evidence that convicted him of this murder nine days later as a result he is now doing forty five years to life in state prison so this is real it helps in measurable that's not the only thing d n a does we also know that it exculpates the innocent you know every day in the state in this state police and prosecutors use a lead not only to to figure out who committed crime but to figure out who didn't commit crime and she finale when he addresses you later we'll talk about just such a case and one of them were this sort of thing happens and we know that hits from the d n a data bank have led to the exoneration of twenty seven cases in the state of new york who events later showed d n a helped reveal were wrongfully convicted these were crimes that occurred prior most of them at least prior to the advent of a so now that we have d n a we're not we're much less likely to make those kinds of errors because we know that going forward in the investigation and we use it appropriately but there is another reason why the d n a data bank expansion expansion makes great sense and that is it saves lives well this might seem a little counterintuitive but let me tell you about a case that proves the point man then raymone mcgill was convicted in albany of pet larceny hundred nine he would have been stopped arrested and undoubtedly convicted and incarcerated but because we did not he was free and he he was free to do horrible things that he did three months later he raped and murdered a fifty year old woman again leaving his d n a at the scene this was in albany he was convicted of another mr meaner after that which to this day until governor cuomo proposal becomes law is not a d n a eligible offense and four years later he murdered a sixty eight year old man in albany again leaving d n a at that crime scene it wasn't until two thousand and five when mr mcgill was convicted in our county of attempted robbery of a cab driver that we took d n a sample from him and  a hit from the data bank came back and linked him to all three violent crimes the rape and the two homicides so we can look at that scenario and we can say it is clear that had we had this law in effect back then two people would be alive today so we're talking about the fact of taking a swab being from the cheek of somebody who's already been convicted of a crime and by the way already rolled their fingers in ink giving fingerprints upon arrest not conviction and we compare that invasion of privacy however minimal it is with the absolute right to life of innocent victims there is no comparison there is none whatsoever there is no good argument against expansion and history tells us that when we have expanded the d n a database like pet larceny we have not only the case like that i've talked about in mcgill but across the board we've linked d n a hits from pet larceny convictions to nine hundred sixty five crimes including fifty one murders and two hundred twenty six sexual assaults now i know not everybody who's convicted of a misdemeanor goes on commits a violent felony but i will tell you in my experience almost everyone who has committed a violent felony has previously committed mr meters you know criminals are rarely specialist today's shoplifter could be tomorrow or yesterday's rapists so in conclusion ladies and gentleman d n a expansion saves lives it incriminates the guilty exculpates the innocent and maybe just maybe the now is that his or her d n a is on file and the d n a data bank might deter somebody who has committed a crime from going on good afternoon and joining me here today is the city is connected to police chief mark chairs and our chief of detectives pat require in this state we take great pride and asserting to the public that we do things for the public in the most efficient an excellent manner the criminal justice system should be no exception when you fail to utilize the entire potential of a tool of criminal justice that has the dual purpose of exonerating innocent people and holding guilty people accountable when you failed to use that tool in fact you're actually using it less than fifty percent of the time how do you say your criminal justice system is at its most efficient level nobody thinks anything of fingerprints they were the the panacea at the time many many years ago fingerprints are going to show you know when to criminal investigation that one break that everybody needed well when d n a came along they became the new fingerprints for criminal justice the potential the accuracy the inability to challenge the results isn't the criminal justice system all about true and exact justice whether that be exoneration or a determination of guilt this bill is long overdue there is no invasive procedure involved here all the objections to expanding this bill some of which date back many many years i mean this reasonable objection could you have which is based upon something that shows proof that your objection is reasonable and proper and the answer to that is none if in fact we're going to pride ourselves in new york state to say we have the cadillac of the criminal justice system we offered to not only the public but the accused individuals the best possible access to evidence which will either acquit them or convict them everybody here is protected innocent people and also the victims of those who are guilty so the governor's right on point here and it is time for the state legislature to say yes indeed we've had enough years of  all these these horror stories real it imagined most imagined didn't happen in this state there's no articulable reason not to get this done in these years the time to do it thank you thank you commissioner our neighbor in glenville our friend a strong leader and a great commanding presence and law enforcement chief michael r good afternoon i just want to take a few minutes to speak from the perspective of the somewhat smaller police department and the resources that d n a and proposed legislation for the increased  additions to the data bank would give to us the d n a is as the commissioner said it's a tremendous tool it's a very valuable tool for all law enforcement agencies in the communities they serve when we have limited resources we want the best tools available to accomplish what we need to accomplish and that is the soft crime the best way to prevent future crimes is to solve current crimes and that's what we need to do d n a is relatively easy to train the collection that is from the standpoint of of r r ver to tech tips who go out and collect this from crime scenes it's relatively easy to train it's relatively easy to apply at the scene and collect the samples  district attorney carney mention the case to that we had a commercial burglary where a victim was attacked by a subject with a crowbar during the course of the struggle that the victim was hurt but put up a fight and the hat that the offender was wearing as long as as well as the crowbar was left behind the tactic was very very quickly able to determine that there's more than likely d n a evidence on both which we would have gotten fingerprint evidence off and we're able to submit to d n a now meanwhile our officers found right nearby another subject to we probably would have looked at very seriously as a suspect in this crime in fact d n a showed us it was not him and we were able to make a successful arrest so i think i can speak for all of my want foresman brothers here today and that look we all dedicate our lives to destroy this is what we do is what all of our fellow law enforcement officers do we have a very good good law enforcement community in this county we don't want to put the wrong person in jail we want to get the right person in jail so that person doesn't go back out and do it again none of us want to live with the possibility that that could happen at the wrong person goes so we ask the police have the governors have the support of the governor's proposal as a state legislation and give us this expanded data bank thank you very much individual who had a long career in local law enforcement and now brings a statewide perspective john deaver to the executive director of the new york state police or chief of police association for last couple of years the new york state association of chiefs of police have supported the passage of a bill that expand the d n a data bank in the state to include all those individuals convicted of a crime for whatever reason the bill has not yet become law but every year that goes by without an expanded data bank it raises the possibility that someone in this state often people least able to protect themselves will needlessly become the victim of a serious crime every year that goes without an expanded d n a data bank raises the possibility that an individual already guilty of committing a most violent crime remains on the street but in reality in all of those people from law enforcement they will tell you this the people who commit these types of crimes they don't stop at one there will be more victims it's time we followed governor cuomo sadly and passed the expanded d n a data bank legislation this year in some cases it just may be the difference between life and death  thank thank you their own individual who brings a unique perspective to this discussion and debate that's going on a victim of a crime here in our own community of schenectady thank you for coming  on may twenty seventh two thousand and nine at about nine pm i was putting my child to bed and my doorbell rang that was the moment i became a victim of a violent home invasion two men wearing masks entered my home and hel me by my hair with a gun to my head because i couldn't see their faces i was only able to give the police a generic description it was through d n a left at the scene when the man cut his hand that identified the man that terrorized my home it was through d n a that put a name to a monster it was through d n a that allowed my child to sleep more peacefully at night a job that i couldn't do science linked him to the crime in a way that i couldn't it was important piece of evidence that the jury used to convict him because d n a doesn't lie without the d n a databank it is possible that this crime would have remained unsolved and he would be free to terrorize others other people's homes and other people's children expanding the databank will bring justice to victims and their families and i am pleased to support this important proposal an individual who on a daily basis sees the devastating effects of criminal activity and tries to help individuals recover from what are all too often just horrendous circumstances tina stanford the director of the new york state office of victim services i think after hearing amy story there should be no doubt that the commissioner's comment is very accurate what's the good reason there is none we know all of us here today know that d n a is a critical crime fighting resource before i was the director of the new york state office for victim services i was a trial an appellate prosecutor and i know from my experience handling thousands of cases that d n a does help to south crime to prevent crime to exonerate the innocent and to provide justice for victims and yet new york state has failed to realize the full potential of this wonderful tool as has been said only forty eight percent of convicted offenders have their d n a sample taken under the law is it right to deny something dumbs the best opportunity for the identification of their offenders and to deny society the safety that comes with solving as many crimes as we have d n a crime scene evidence for every year nationally we celebrate and commemorate national crime victims rights week this year it's going to be commemorated between april twenty second and twenty eighth and i think the theme for this year's commemoration is very apropos to this discussion it's extending the vision reaching every victim certainly with d n a evidence collected on all felonies and penal law misdemeanors we have the capacity once this last past to reach every victim for which d n a evidence is left at the crime scene i want to also acknowledge my fellow colleagues in the victim services area first i acknowledge can rule this and who represents the victim services unit at the district attorney's office we're also joined by karen draper who's the project director for sexual assault support services and laurie centra who's  together the advocates law enforcement prosecutors we all support governor cuomo proposal to expand the new york state d n a databank since one nine hundred ninety six two thousand seven hundred plus crimes have been solved and twenty seven new yorkers have been exonerated the legislature since one nine hundred ninety six has incrementally expanded the d n a data bank and sense that has happen every time there's been an expansion we've solved and prevented crimes by the hundreds in two thousand and six the expansion included more misdemeanors misdemeanor offenses like petty larceny some opposed it they said it was unnecessary they said it would never link to serious violent crime but as d n a carney told you criminals don't specialize and they often commit petty and what we consider minor crimes in addition to very serious violent crimes d n a carney also talked about the potential that petty larceny brought to solving crimes and he gave you numbers like fifty one murder south two hundred twenty plus sexual assaults and it is a fact when you know those numbers that every day we way more cold cases go on soft people wrongfully convicted sit in jail and crimes that could have been prevented worse and this is because on average offenders linked to crime scene evidence through d n a left at those crime scenes were convicted three times before they were finally convicted of an offense for which we now collect a three times three three three convictions in between the crime where they left the d n a and the crime that they were finally able to get a collection you may hear opponents say things like providing a d sample means that your genetic profile will be in the hands of the government or that taking a d n a sample is an invasion of privacy or expanding the databank will cause a huge backlog and mistakes that crime labs where they connect collecting more d mean that more people are falsely accused and prosecuted as the commissioner told you all of these arguments have been given before they are old and they are untrue first the d n a profiles maintained at the data numeric sequences they cannot be used to identify anything about a person's race appearance health or behavior and as to the invasion of privacy argument a simple procedure collects a it's a swab in your mouth that takes less than five minutes from start to finish and ten seconds in a subjects mouth and it only will impact people convicted of crimes not upon arrest or when someone is question second the new york state police lab has the capacity to handle these additional samples right now they can process up to ten thousand a month we estimate that it will only add about seven thousand it will only be about seven thousand samples that are going to the lab so it's going to be well under the ten thousand capacity that the map can handle and finally no one in new york state has ever been wrongfully convicted because a d n a sample was incorrectly matched to crime scene evidence that's a fact i invite everyone listening today to go to the governor's website w w w n y get involved dot com and hit the d n a stops crime tab when you go to that website you'll be able to see a video about the importance of d n a how it's used and what the benefits are and you also be able to see comments from other professionals from all walks of life who support this new proposal as we speak right here there are tens of thousands of unsolved crimes in new york state including rapes and murders that have gone on south for years there are also thousands of survivors who worry every day because the person who's harmed them is still at large free to commit more crimes and as we've said often doing so remember there's an average of three prior convictions before offenders are finally convicted of a d n a eligible  fense as things stand right now expanding the state's databank is our opportunity to make an immediate difference in the lives of thousands of people harmed by crime people like me who are so brave to be here with us today in always great when you can answer all the questions in the presentation so i thank everybody for joining us today appreciate your help in getting the message out on this important issue thank you