Jesse Scheckner
Legislation requiring any inmate who doesn’t already have DNA in the state’s database to provide a sample this year is heading to the House floor after clearing its final committee hurdle unchanged and unchallenged.
The House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to advance the measure (HB 533), which would apply to all prisoners under Department of Corrections (DOC) custody regardless of their crime or when the offense occurred.
Miami Lakes Republican Rep. Tom Fabricio, the bill’s sponsor, said it “closes a very tiny loophole” in Florida law that has allowed some offenders to long evade sampling and prevented law enforcement from solving cold cases.
State law already requires many individuals arrested or convicted of certain offenses to submit DNA samples, including those charged with sexual assault, indecent exposure, murder, robbery, kidnapping, battery, burglary, felony firearm violations and theft.
The DNA information collected goes into a database for cross reference. Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) officials say it leads to more than 4,500 hits yearly in unsolved crimes.
The loophole to which Fabricio refers is that the current law only applies to offenses in or after 2011. His bill and an identical companion (SB 524) by Spring Hills Republican Sen. Blaise Ingoglia would delete that restriction.
“Capturing these DNA samples will allow law enforcement to potentially close decades-long cold cases and bring the families much-needed closure they deserve,” Ingoglia said when he filed his measure in November. “Victims have rights, too, and that includes the right to know who committed atrocious crimes against their loved ones.”
HB 533 and SB 524, which a House staff analysis determined would have no fiscal impact on FDLE or DOC, would be a boon to legislation by Tamarac Democratic Sen. Rosalind Osgood and Miami Gardens Democratic Rep. Christopher Benjamin that would make it easier for families of unsolved murder victims to reopen their cases.
Osgood’s measure, which would require law enforcement agencies across Florida to review potentially reopening cold cases and do so if it’s merited, advanced with uniform support through its first committee stop Tuesday.
According to Project: Cold Case, a Jacksonville-based nonprofit, there were 57,181 homicides in Florida from 1965 to 2021. Of those, 19,549 remain unsolved.
HB 533 did not receive a single “no” vote through three House committee stops. SB 524 advanced through its first of three committee stops Jan. 16 on a 7-0 vote.
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Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics contributed to this report.
