Comment on FR Doc # E9-22492

At first glance, I am all for the passage of this legislation, but it appears that not enough research and thought was put into the drafting of the changes. For example, how does the passage of this proposed legislation impact the use of a person’s genetic information in regards to indentifying the person as a criminal or using that information as evidence in a court of law to prosecute that individual? This is a huge item to just completely ignore it. If we pass this legislation based purely on its face value, I think that our police departments will be severely hindered as they would be able to match a person’s DNA against CODIS (the Federal DNA Database), but that information could never be used in court as all evidence becomes a matter of public record. Further, the defendant would have to consent to its use in court in order to allow it to even be presented. This puts the fight against crime back about 25 years. We need to make sure that we consider this impact on the rights of crime victims and weigh this against a defendant’s right to protect their personally identifiable information. Even though there is a portion of the population that believe convicted criminals should lose their rights, we need remember that our judicial system is based on everyone being innocent until proven guilty. There are too many risks with the proposed changes and to pass this on its merits is a very dangerous path. Please go back and review all of the ramifications that passage could cause.