State of Vermont v. George Dean Martin; State of Vermont v. Mark Watkins, Richard Washington, Joey Thibault, Raymond St. Peter, Steven Martin, Michael Lewis, Travis Lamberton, Dennis Barbour and Joseph Williams, 2008 VT 53

Summary

The Vermont Supreme Court considered whether requiring convicted nonviolent felons to provide DNA samples under 20 V.S.A. §§ 1931–1946 violated Chapter I, Article 11 of the Vermont Constitution. The court held that the DNA-sampling statute served special needs beyond ordinary law enforcement and that the sampling, analysis, and database procedures were constitutionally permissible. It affirmed the Addison District Court's order compelling George Dean Martin to provide a sample and reversed the Chittenden District Court's contrary judgment.

Holdings

1. The taking of a DNA sample and the subsequent analysis, storage, and searching of the resulting DNA profile are governmental intrusions subject to scrutiny under Chapter I, Article 11 of the Vermont Constitution.
2. DNA sampling and analysis under the statute serve special needs beyond normal law enforcement because they create a database for future identification, detection, exclusion, and identification of missing persons rather than immediately gathering evidence against a particular individual for a specific crime.
3. The statute does not violate Article 11 as applied to nonviolent felons because the State's interests in accurate identification, exoneration of innocent persons, identification of missing persons, and deterrence outweigh the minimal intrusion caused by collection and use of the statutorily limited DNA profile.
4. The statute may constitutionally require DNA samples from nonviolent felons, whether incarcerated or not, because the statutory objectives extend beyond identifying perpetrators of violent crimes and the effectiveness of sampling need not be high in percentage terms when the governmental objective is significant and the intrusion is limited.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Vermont's DNA database statute, as applied to convicted nonviolent felons, violates Chapter I, Article 11 of the Vermont Constitution.
2. Whether warrantless and suspicionless DNA sampling, analysis, storage, and searching may be upheld under Article 11's special-needs doctrine.
3. Whether the statute's application to nonviolent felons is sufficiently connected to the State's interests in crime investigation, deterrence, exoneration, and identification of missing persons.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded