{"id":27460,"date":"2011-03-18T22:15:39","date_gmt":"2011-03-19T04:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=27460"},"modified":"2011-03-18T22:30:10","modified_gmt":"2011-03-19T04:30:10","slug":"martine-will-sign-expansion-of-katie%e2%80%99s-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/03\/martine-will-sign-expansion-of-katie%e2%80%99s-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Martinez will sign expansion of Katie\u2019s Law"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Gov. Susana Martinez, center, with Jayann Sepich and Sen. Vernon Asbill after the expansion to Katie's Law passed the Legislature tonight. (Courtesy photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

Gov. Susana Martinez<\/a> will sign a bill approved by lawmakers tonight that would expand Katie\u2019s Law to require a DNA sample from anyone arrested for a felony crime in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

The compromise bill, approved following a conference committee between House and Senate members, was called \u201cthe strongest Katie\u2019s Law in the country with the exception of California\u201d by Jayann Sepich, the mother of the murdered NMSU student for whom the law is named.<\/p>\n

Under the compromise bill, the DNA collected from those arrested for any felony crime would be inputted into the DNA database only if a judge finds probable cause for the arrest at the defendant\u2019s first hearing in court or if the defendant bonds out beforehand and fails to appear at such a hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a victory for anyone who wants to make New Mexico\u2019s communities safer for our children and families,\u201d Martinez said in a news release. \u201cKatie\u2019s Law has gotten real results, but now we can do even more. This legislation gives our\u00a0law enforcement community\u00a0even greater tools to catch criminals, prevent crimes, and provide justice for victims and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jayann Sepich also praised the bill, saying she and her husband \u201cknow that collecting DNA samples from those arrested for all felonies will mean more crimes solved, more crimes prevented, and more lives saved.\u201d<\/p>\n

A provision originally approved by the Senate that would have expunged some arrest records for people not convicted of crimes was removed from the final bill. The governor had said she wouldn\u2019t sign the bill if it was sent to her with that provision included.<\/p>\n

The bill was sponsored by Sen. Vernon Asbill<\/a>, R-Carlsbad, and Rep. Al Park<\/a>, D-Albuquerque.<\/p>\n

Katie\u2019s Law was first enacted in New Mexico 2006, nearly three years after\u00a0Katie Sepich was raped and murdered. Though her murderer left behind traces of DNA under Katie\u2019s fingernails, New Mexico did not at the time allow for DNA to be collected upon arrest.<\/p>\n

The 2006 law allowed collection of DNA in cases of certain felony charges. The new bill expands it to all felonies.<\/p>\n

You can find the bill here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Susana Martinez will sign a bill approved by lawmakers tonight that would expand Katie\u2019s Law to require a DNA sample from anyone arrested for a felony crime in New Mexico.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[142,133,107],"class_list":["post-27460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-crime","tag-nmsu","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}