On the recordSeptember 20, 2010
I rise today to introduce the Katie Sepich Enhanced DNA Collection Act of 2010. I am pleased that Senators Udall of New Mexico, Schumer, and Bennet of Colorado, are joining me today in sponsoring this important piece of legislation. Similar legislation, which was championed in the House of Representatives by Congressman Teague, overwhelmingly passed that body with a bipartisan vote of 357 to 32. The bill is named after Katie Sepich, a promising graduate student attending New Mexico State University who was tragically murdered in 2003. The man who killed Katie was arrested for aggravated assault about three months after the murder. Although police had collected the killer's DNA from the crime scene, because there was no requirement that DNA be taken from individuals arrested for serious felonies, police weren't able to get a match until about three years after the murder when the man was sent to prison after being convicted of unrelated crimes. If New Mexico had the arrestee law then that it has today it would have taken three months, not three years, to solve the crime. Katie's mother, Jayann, has worked tirelessly at the state and Federal level to give law enforcement the tools they need to promptly solve crimes and ensure that other mothers don't have to suffer the same horrible ordeal that her family has.
