Balding v. State
Decision Date | 22 July 2004 |
Docket Number | No. 45A05-0401-CR-24.,45A05-0401-CR-24. |
Citation | 812 N.E.2d 169 |
Parties | Randal BALDING, Appellant-Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff. |
Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
Charles E. Stewart, Jr., Crown Point, IN, Attorney for Appellant.
Steve Carter, Attorney General of Indiana, Ellen H. Meilaender, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.
Randal Balding appeals the trial court's decision to grant the State's motion compelling Balding to submit a DNA sample to be included in the Indiana DNA Database. We affirm.
Balding raises one issue for our review, which we restate as whether the trial court properly granted the State's motion to compel Balding to submit a DNA sample to be included in the Indiana DNA Database.
On September 5, 2002, Balding pled guilty to sexual battery, a Class D felony, pursuant to a plea agreement with the State. As required under the agreement, the trial court sentenced Balding to three years, with one-and-one-half years suspended, to be served on probation. On April 1, 2003, the probation department filed a petition to revoke Balding's probation for committing new offenses while on probation and for failing to pay court costs. On October 23, 2003, Balding admitted to violating his probation, and the trial court ordered Balding to serve the suspended portion of his sentence. The State filed a motion to compel Balding to submit a DNA sample to be included in the Indiana DNA Database. After a hearing, the trial court granted the State's motion. This appeal ensued.
Balding contends the trial court erred in granting the State's motion compelling him to submit a DNA sample to be included in the Indiana DNA Database because it violates his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.1 We disagree.
[S]tates recognize that the use of DNA has become a powerful investigative tool that links suspects to crimes. There has also been an increasing recognition of the ability of DNA testing to exonerate the innocent. This recognition was evidenced by Congress' passage of the DNA Identification Act of 1994. This law provided funding for the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Combined DNA Indexing System ("CODIS"). This program "enables federal, state, and local laboratories to store and compare DNA profiles electronically and thereby link serial crimes to each other and identify suspects by matching DNA from crime scenes to convicted offenders."
On February 29, 1996, Indiana joined CODIS when our General Assembly established the Indiana DNA Database by enacting P.L. 100-1996, now codified at [Indiana Code chapter 10-13-6]. The statute requires individuals convicted of certain felonies ... to provide a DNA sample for testing and inclusion in a database so long as it does not pose an unreasonable risk to their health. The purpose of the testing is to analyze and type the genetic markers in the DNA sample, to assist law enforcement identification purposes, and for research and administrative purposes. Every other state has enacted similar legislation.
Patterson v. State, 742 N.E.2d 4, 10-11 (Ind.Ct.App.2000), aff'd on reh'g, trans. denied, cert. denied, 534 U.S. 961, 122 S.Ct. 368, 151 L.Ed.2d 279 (2001) (citations omitted and emphasis in original).
Indiana Code section 10-13-6-10 reads as follows:
(Emphasis added).
Before we address Balding's Fourth Amendment claim, we note that it was Balding's underlying offense of sexual battery, and not his probation revocation, that brought him under the purview of Indiana Code section 10-13-6-10. However, the State did not request that Balding submit a DNA sample until after his probation revocation. When a court finds that a person has violated probation, the court may "order execution of the sentence that was suspended at the time of the initial sentencing." Ind.Code § 35-38-2-3(g)(3) (emphasis added). The trial court cannot add new terms to the sentence.
In the instant case, Balding was convicted of the underlying offense of sexual battery in 2002. The Indiana DNA Database was established in 1996, and sexual battery was included as one of the crimes for which a convicted offender was required to submit a sample. Thus, at the time of his conviction, Indiana Code section 10-13-6-10 required Balding to submit a DNA sample. The State's delay in requesting a sample until after the probation revocation did not make the requirement to submit a sample a new term of Balding's sentence.
trans. denied. Therefore, the compulsory collection of a DNA sample to be included in the Indiana DNA Database must comport with the Fourth Amendment.
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution states, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ...." (emphasis added). The Fourth Amendment thus prohibits searches and seizures that are unreasonable. Generally, searches and seizures are unreasonable if conducted without an individualized suspicion of wrongdoing. City of Indianapolis v. Edmond, 531 U.S. 32, 37, 121 S.Ct. 447, 148 L.Ed.2d 333 (2000). One exception to this rule exists where suspicionless searches are designed to serve "special needs," or needs that are beyond the normal need for law enforcement. Id. When such special needs are alleged as justification of a suspicionless search, we must conduct a context-specific inquiry and examine closely the competing private and public interests advanced by the parties. Kopkey v. State, 743 N.E.2d 331, 336-37 (Ind.Ct.App.2001), trans. denied.
Neither party asserts that an individualized suspicion of wrongdoing existed in this case. Therefore, the compulsory collection of DNA samples for inclusion in the Indiana DNA Database survives a Fourth Amendment challenge only if such searches serve a special need beyond the normal need for law enforcement and crime detection. We hold that they do.
The Indiana General Assembly listed the following purposes for the Indiana DNA Database:
Ind.Code § 10-13-6-13. Although one of the listed purposes of the Indiana DNA Database is for normal law enforcement purposes, the statute lists other purposes for the database that go beyond the normal need for law enforcement. Therefore, the Indiana DNA Database serves a special need that goes beyond the normal need for law enforcement.
Having determined that the compulsory collection of DNA samples from convicted offenders for inclusion in the Indiana DNA Database falls within the "special needs" exception to the Fourth Amendment, we must now balance the private and public interests advanced by the parties to determine whether the search was reasonable. We will examine the following considerations: (1) the nature of the privacy interest upon which the search intruded; (2) the character of the intrusion into Balding's privacy; and (3) the nature and immediacy of the governmental interest at issue and the efficacy of the Indiana DNA Database for meeting that interest. Kopkey, 743 N.E.2d at 337-38.
We first consider the nature of the privacy interest upon which the suspicionless search intruded. The Fourth Amendment does not...
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