Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Antonia Aguilar - University of New Mexico/ Talk Radio News Service

Rep. Harry Teague (D-NM) held a press conference Thursday to rally support behind “Katie’s Law," a piece of legislation that will require all states to collect and maintain a DNA profile for every violent crime offender upon arrest.

“We have the power through advance DNA collection to make one less parent grieve for a child, to make one less husband grieve for a wife or one less child lose a parent and i intend to work in congress to make sure that we are doing everything we can to prevent this kind of violent crime from happening,” said Teague.

Katie’s Law is a named after Katie Sepich, a 22 year old woman who was raped and brutally murdered in 2003 in southern New Mexico. Through DNA comparison Katie’s murderer was brought to justice. Her parents sought legislation throughout the state of New Mexico for felony DNA collection in hopes of preventing future crimes and bringing criminals to justice.

“[Katie’s Law] will do so much to bring justice to grieving families and victims of heinous crimes, but it will do so much more; it would prevent any of these crimes from taking place in the first place. It would very simply same lives,” said Katie’s mother Jayann Sepich, who appeared alongside Teague Thursday.