Massachusetts

Recent / Pending Legislation

• SB 1745 (2025/6, pending) – An Act relative to lawfully owed DNA – this bill targets systemic gaps where individuals convicted of qualifying offenses under Chapter 22E were never sampled due to administrative oversight. It streamlines the legal authority of parole and probation officers to compel retroactive sample collection from individuals currently under state supervision.
• HB 2626 (2025, pending) – permitting familial DNA searches when investigating certain unsolved crimes.
• HB 2625 (2025-26 session, still moving) – any arrested and charged for felony must provide DNA sample.

Arrestees: No.

Convicted Offenders: Yes.

Qualifying Crimes: Any offense punishable by state-prison imprisonment, or an offense by a person adjudicated a youthful offender that would carry imprisonment if committed by an adult.

Time of Collection: For those sentenced to probation, the sample is a condition of probation, due forthwith upon conviction; for those sentenced to imprisonment, within 10 days of intake or return to the correctional facility. No one is released from any facility without collection.

Expungement: By petition to the superior court where the case was reversed and dismissed (after a one-year waiting period, or on confirmation from the district attorney that no further prosecution of the original offense is contemplated).

Statutes / Case Law

Mass. Gen. L. Ch. 22E §3 Submission of DNA Sample

Mass. Gen. L. Ch. 22E §4 Collection of DNA Samples; Civil Liability; Costs

Mass. Gen. L. Ch. 22E §15 Expungement of Record

515 Mass. Code Regs. §§ 1.01–1.06. Collection, submission, receipt, identification, storage, and disposal of DNA samples

Landry v. Attorney General, 709 N.E.2d 1085 (Mass. 1999), cert. denied 120 S. Ct. 785, 528 U.S. 1073 (involuntary collection of DNA is a search under the Fourth Amendment; collection for convicted offenders upheld under federal and state constitutional challenge).

Commonwealth v. Smith, 829 N.E.2d 1090 (Mass. Sup. J. Ct. 2005) (holding “that the statute extends to persons convicted of any felony, without regard to whether that conviction stems from an indictment in the Superior Court or a complaint in the District Court”).

Com. v. Abrahams (2014) 6 N.E.3d 1095, 85 (finding that the collection of DNA sample from defendant was authorized, where sample was collected while defendant was in custody in pretrial detainee status after completing sentences for larceny and drug possession; though defendant was not “incarcerated” at time of collection, statute required only that sample be collected before defendant’s release from “custody,” not “incarceration.”)

Legislative History

Original Enactment: Acts of 1997, Chapter 106. “An Act Relative to the Enhancement of Forensic Technology” — Approved September 30, 1997. This is the bill that created Chapter 22E from scratch (Section 7 of the act inserts the entire new chapter). Key provisions:

Established the State DNA Database within the Department of State Police

Mandated DNA collection from persons convicted of specific enumerated sex and violent offenses under Ch. 265 (rape, indecent assault, murder, kidnapping, etc.), Ch. 266 §§ 14–15 (arson/breaking/entering), and Ch. 272 (sex crimes)

Applied retroactively to those already incarcerated or on probation/parole as of the effective date

Established the full 15-section structure of Ch. 22E

Major Expansion: Acts of 2003, Chapter 107. “An Act Relative to the State DNA Database” — Approved November 12, 2003. This is the single most significant amendment. It struck out Section 3’s enumerated offense list and replaced it with the current broad mandate:

Expanded collection to all persons convicted of any offense punishable by state prison (i.e., all felonies) and any youthful offender for a felony-equivalent offense

Applied retroactively to all then-incarcerated persons and those on probation/parole who had not yet submitted a sample

Acts of 2010, Chapter 256. “An Act Reforming the Administrative Procedures Relative to Criminal Offender Record Information” — Approved August 6, 2010. Amended Section 9 only — updated the agency name from “criminal history systems board” to “department of criminal justice information services.” No substantive change to the collection mandate.

Acts of 2012, Chapter 192. “An Act Relative to Sentencing and Improving Law Enforcement Tools” — Approved August 2, 2012. Amended Sections 3, 4, and 11: Section 3: Added electronic notification requirement — courts and probation must notify the department whenever a conviction triggers a DNA submission obligation Section 4: Expanded who may collect samples (removed “licensed” requirement, substituted “approved”; added buccal swabs as a collection method) Section 11: Changed the penalty trigger from outright refusal to willful failure to submit within 1 year after written notice

Acts of 2018, Chapter 69. “An Act Relative to Criminal Justice Reform” — Approved April 13, 2018. Completely rewrote Section 3 (Sections 19–20 of the act), establishing the current two-subsection structure: Section 3(a): Requires submission forthwith upon conviction as a condition of probation, or within 10 days of intake if sentenced to incarceration; prohibits release from any correctional facility until a sample is collected; added the Commissioner of Probation as a collection authority alongside the department Section 3(b): Consolidated the electronic notification and procedural requirements from prior amendments. Also amended Section 4 to conform.

No program or law found.

No program or law found.

DA’s Office to conduct forensic genealogy DNA collection at World’s Largest Pancake Breakfast – May 6, 2026 (Hampden County)

• There is a pending bill in MA on LODNA. See SB 1745 (2025/26, pending).

No program or law found.