A-G candidate wants state D-N-A registry for felons

The republican candidate for Attorney General says every convicted felon in Iowa should submit a blood sample so their D-N-A can be kept on file.David Millage, a republican from Bettendorf, is a state representative who intends to sponsor legislation in 2002 that’d seek to compile the D-N-A information of all felons. He says half of all criminals who commit violent crimes have non-violent criminal histories. Millage says it’d cost the state just 100-thousand dollars, as a 900-thousand federal grant is available to hire more lab technicians to do the tests.Millage is campaigning to unseat democrat Attorney General Tom Miller in November of next year. Millage says 13 other states require all felons to submit to D-N-A tests, and D-N-A evidence is solving loads of crimes in Great Britain. He says England takes samples for all felonies and is able to solve about 700 crimes per week.The state currently collects D-N-A samples from those convicted of “forcible felonies” such as murder. Under that law, only seven percent of felons now submit to a D-N-A test.