California nixes DNA database for suspects

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- A California state appellate court has defied the U.S. Supreme Court with a ruling tossing out a law requiring DNA collection from everyone arrested for a felony.

"The California DNA Act intrudes too quickly and too deeply into the privacy interests of arrestees," presiding justice J. Anthony Kline wrote for the three-judge panel of the First Appellate District Court of Appeal in San Francisco.

The decision cited 2012 state statistics that 62 percent of those arrested for felonies who were not ultimately convicted—almost 20 percent of the total number of felony busts — were never even charged with a crime.

The decision contravenes a Supreme Court decision last year ruling that a similar Maryland DNA law was a valid form of police identification of suspects, like fingerprinting.

The California panel cited the state constitution which declares "privacy" to be an "inalienable right" under a 1972 state law, the Privacy Initiative.

The court noted: "The collection and indefinite storage of DNA samples is the epitome of the kind of stockpiling of personal and private information the Privacy Initiative meant to protect from unnecessary governmental intrusion."

The California case, People v. Buza, involved a San Francisco man who was convicted of arson and other charges, including refusal to provide a DNA sample. The ruling only concerns the DNA charge, for which he was sentenced to six months in jail.

The decision is likely to be appealed to the California Supreme Court.