Ark. Code Ann. § 12-12-1102 (2026)
Purpose
The General Assembly finds and declares that:
-
DNA data banks are an important tool in:
- Criminal investigations;
- The exclusion of individuals who are the subjects of criminal investigations or prosecutions; and
- Deterring and detecting recidivist acts;
- Several states have enacted laws requiring persons convicted of certain crimes, especially sexual offenses, to provide genetic samples for DNA profiling;
- Moreover, it is the policy of this state to assist federal, state, and local criminal justice and law enforcement agencies in the identification and detection of individuals in criminal investigations; and
- It is therefore in the best interest of the State of Arkansas to establish a DNA data base and a DNA data bank containing DNA samples submitted by individuals convicted of sex offenses and violent offenses.
History. Acts 1997, No. 737, § 2.
Case Notes
Evidence.
Unlike the situation in a prior case, the state presented proof that defendant's un-degraded DNA was on a ski mask, found with a pair of gloves, 129 feet from the back door of the house where the rape occurred, and the victim testified that the attacker wore a ski mask and gloves, and that the mask and gloves shown to the victim by police looked like the ones the victim saw on the victim's attacker, and in conjunction with defendant's inconsistent defense theories, the evidence was sufficient to sustain defendant's conviction. Haynes v. State, 354 Ark. 514, 127 S.W.3d 456 (2003), cert. denied, 541 U.S. 1047, 124 S. Ct. 2168, 158 L. Ed. 2d 740 (2004).