House Judiciary Committee advances range of bills including DNA database changes, ‘‘Buddy’s Law’’ and medical parole amendments

The House Judiciary Committee on March 6 advanced a slate of bills, adopting amendments on several and moving others forward for further consideration.

The committee voted to adopt an amendment to a Department of State Police-sponsored bill on the statewide DNA database, approved legislation increasing the maximum civil recovery for serious injury or death of a pet (commonly referred to in committee as "Buddy's Law"), and moved amendments into House Bill 11-23 that add medical-parole details and a funding provision to expand case review capacity.

Why it matters: the actions change how the state collects and manages DNA samples, raise the civil cap for pet-injury claims from $10,000 to $25,000, and adjust the medical- and geriatric-parole process — including removing the governor from the medical-parole decision pathway and directing $1 million from the Justice Reinvestment Fund to add case examiners. Several items also include procedural changes that affect day-to-day interactions between state government and residents, such as jury excusal rules for nursing/breastfeeding parents and requirements for notification when someone dies in a correctional facility.

DNA database bill (House Bill 259) Claire, a committee staffer, described an amendment "that basically reflects what the Senate did." She said the change "creates an exception for citizen initiated charges and reduces the maximum fine from $10,000 to $1,000." Claire also described the underlying bill as a departmental, housekeeping measure requested by the Department of State Police that "alters the circumstances in which a DNA sample must be collected and stored in the statewide DNA database system, alters the individuals required to collect the DNA samples, and alters the process for collecting the samples,…