DNA Test Backlog Shrinking, O'Malley Says

At Crime Lab, Governor Expresses Interest in Taking Samples Before Convictions

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said yesterday that a significant state backlog in DNA testing is likely to be eliminated by early next year and that he is considering asking the legislature to allow sampling from suspects before they are convicted.

O'Malley (D) made the announcements during a visit to the state's forensic lab in Pikesville. The outing was intended to showcase progress made during O'Malley's first six months as governor in addressing an inherited backlog of 24,000 untested DNA samples from convicted felons.

Labs across the region, including those in Montgomery and Prince George's counties, face increasingly unmanageable backlogs because of soaring demand for the tests and a shortage of trained scientists.

O'Malley said the state has made progress by hiring additional scientists, raising salaries at the lab and buying much-needed equipment. He and state police officials, who run the lab, said that at the current pace, the backlog will be eliminated by February.

The state loads information about DNA samples into a database that allows law enforcement officials to seek matches and make connections to unsolved cases.

O'Malley said that next year he might ask the legislature to expand mandatory DNA collections to include suspects at the time of arrest, Virginia's practice in violent crime investigations. Under Maryland law, swabbing is not conducted until after conviction, he said.

O'Malley said privacy concerns had prevented a more expansive policy in the past.

"I think a lot of those qualms about it somehow being a violation of privacy have been allayed," O'Malley said. "If we're doing it with fingerprints, why can't we do it with DNA?"

Sen. Brian E. Frosh (D-Montgomery), chairman of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, said O'Malley probably would face concerns about cost and the ability of the state lab to process the samples, given its track record.

O'Malley also used yesterday's event to tout cooperation with prison officials in taking DNA samples from prisoners and some high-profile matches that have led to recent arrests in cases dating back as far as 1978.