Court OKs application of DNA-sample statute to misdemeanants 

Posted: 1:00 am Mon, February 1, 2010
By Minnesota Lawyer

The Minnesota Court of Appeals has determined that the DNA-sample statute, which authorizes the taking of DNA from a misdemeanant in some circumstances, does not violate the search-and-seizure provisions of the U.S. or Minnesota constitutions.

The defendant was charged with felony domestic assault by strangulation and misdemeanor fifth-degree assault. He pleaded guilty to the fifth-degree assault charge in exchange for dismissal of the felony charge. When he was advised that he would be required to submit a DNA sample pursuant to Minn. Stat. sec. 609.117, subd. 1(1), he argued the submission was not required because he had not been convicted of a felony.

A Hennepin County District Court judge denied the defendant’s motion to declare the DNA statute unconstitutional. The Court of Appeals affirmed.

The court rejected the notion that only conviction of a felony or a predatory offense justifies a warrantless, suspicionless collection of DNA. Instead, the court applied a totality-of-the-circumstances analysis and balanced the state’s substantial interests in DNA collection against the minimal intrusion and the diminished privacy expectations of an offender convicted of a misdemeanor of the type defined in the DNA statute.

“Because [the statute], as applied to an individual convicted of a misdemeanor offense arising from the same set of circumstances as a charged felony offense, does not authorize an unreasonable search and seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution or Article I, Section 10, of the Minnesota Constitution, the district court did not err by ordering collection of DNA from [the defendant],” wrote Judge Wilhelmina Wright.

The decision is State v. Johnson.