On the recordMarch 9, 2011
I rise today to introduce the Katie Sepich Enhanced DNA Collection Act of 2011. I am pleased that Senators Kyl, Udall of New Mexico, Schumer, and Bennet of Colorado are joining me today in sponsoring this important piece of legislation. Congressman Schiff and Reichert are also introducing this bipartisan bill in the House. Similar legislation, which was championed in the House of Representatives by Congressman Teague, overwhelmingly passed that body last year with a bipartisan vote of 357 to 32. Unfortunately, efforts to move the legislation last year were unsuccessful in the Senate. I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass this bipartisan bill in the Senate this Congress. 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 3 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 3 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 3 months, not 3 years, to solve the crime.
