In an effort to appear “tough on crime” while running for the office of Attorney General, State Rep. Rob Teilhet, a Democrat from Smyrna, is proposing legislation that would require any individual arrested on a felony charge to submit a DNA sample for the statewide DNA database.
Such a proposal would require a suspect to give a DNA sample for felonies like bingo, eavesdropping and bigamy. It also ends the current practice of requiring a warrant to take a suspect’s DNA. For those arrested but not convicted of a felony, they can only have their DNA removed from the criminal database if they jump through bureaucratic hoops and red tape.
While it is important to protect Georgians from criminals, trampling on basic civil liberties, such as due process, is exactly the wrong way to do it. Teilhet’s draft legislation would keep any individual’s DNA in the database not actually convicted of a crime until that individual requests for it to be removed.
“This proposal should be a concern every Georgian, “says Jason Pye, Legislative Director of the Libertarian Party of Georgia. “Rep. Teilhet is seeking the state’s highest law enforcement position, and before he even has his party’s nomination he has showed the citizens of this state that he has no regard for constitutionally protected right of due process.”
Pye adds that the cost of the program is prohibitive given budgetary concerns.
Unless the legislation is limited to those individuals actually convicted of felonies, the Libertarian Party of Georgia will oppose Rep. Teilhet’s proposal.
