Administering Entity
Department of Public Safety
No recent or pending legislation.
The Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) does not have a traditional DNA database law or program. CNMI does have however a sex offender collection mandate. CNMI is also not a NDIS-participating jurisdiction; the FBI lists only the 50 states, D.C., the federal government, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory, and Puerto Rico.
Arrestees: None. No arrestee collection law.
Convicted Offenders: No all-felony convicted-offender mandate. The only trigger is sex-offender registration status.
Qualifying Crimes: Like Guam, CNMI’s only DNA mandate sits in its Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act — 6 CMC § 1365(a)(4), added by PL 17-49 (2011) — requiring a covered sex offender to provide DPS “or designee” a DNA sample only if the offender’s DNA is not already in CODIS, for submission to “an appropriate lab” for analysis and CODIS entry (definitions at 6 CMC § 1360).
Time of Collection: Collection is tied to registration, not conviction: under § 1367(a) the sample is taken within 3 business days of entering DOC custody or parole/probation supervision, or within 3 business days of sentencing if the offender is not incarcerated, with LESA (DOC, Parole, Adult and Juvenile Probation) directing the offender to appear at the SORA-Office/DPS under § 1364(c). Refusal is not separately penalized; it falls under § 1376(a) as failure to provide required registration information — up to 3 years, a $2,000 fine, or both, plus civil enforcement under § 1376(b). No reasonable-force authority.
Statutes/Case Law
- The one other DNA statute is 6 CMC § 1319 (PL 12-82, eff. Jan. 7, 2002), governing admissibility of DNA profiles and displacing Frye.
Legislative History
- B. No. 11-8 (11th Leg., 1st Reg. Sess. 1998) — Public Law No. 11-35, “The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act” (effective on approval by the Governor; took effect Sept. 11, 1998). Created the Commonwealth’s first sex offender registry at 6 CMC, Division 1, Part 1, Chapter 3, Article 4, enacted to capture Jacob Wetterling Act incentives under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Registration information was limited to fingerprints and a photograph — no DNA provision.
- B. No. 11-475, SD1 (11th Leg., 4th Reg. Sess. 1999) — Public Law No. 11-104, “To repeal and reenact Public Law 11-35; and for other purposes” (took effect Oct. 1, 1999). Repealed and reenacted the registry in full to meet the Pam Lychner Act amendments to Wetterling, adding lifetime registration for particularly serious offenses and recidivists, FBI transmission of registrant fingerprints, coverage of offenders convicted in other states, and participation in the national registry. Collection remained fingerprint- and photograph-based — no DNA provision.
- B. No. 12-125 (12th Leg., 4th Reg. Sess. 2001) — Public Law No. 12-82, “To revise and reform the criminal laws concerning sexual assault and sexual abuse of minors in the Commonwealth” (effective on approval per Section 12; took effect Jan. 7, 2002). Section 6 added 6 CMC § 1319, “Admissibility of DNA profiles,” the Commonwealth’s first forensic DNA statute: DNA profile evidence is admissible to prove or disprove any relevant fact on a judicial finding that the underlying technique is scientifically valid, and admission “does not require a finding of general acceptance in the relevant scientific community,” displacing Frye. § 1319(b) defines “deoxyribonucleic acid” and “DNA profile,” the latter covering analysis of blood, semen, tissue, or other DNA-bearing cells plus statistical population frequency comparisons. The same act rewrote 6 CMC §§ 1301–1311, added §§ 1314–1318 and 1320, and amended §§ 107 and 4102 and 7 CMC § 3302.
- B. No. 17-111, HS1 (17th Leg. 2011) — Public Law No. 17-49, “To re-enact the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Laws to comply with the U.S. Department of Justice Guidelines” (signed by Gov. Benigno R. Fitial July 29, 2011; effective on approval per Section 5). Repealed and reenacted 6 CMC Division 1, Part 1, Chapter 3, Article 4 as the “Sex Offender Registration Act known as CNMI-SORA” (§§ 1360 et seq.) to meet the minimum requirements of SORNA, Title I of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. § 1365(a)(4) created the Commonwealth’s only mandatory DNA collection requirement: if a sex offender’s DNA “is not already contained in the combined DNA index system (CODIS), the sex offender shall provide the Department of Public Safety or designee a sample of his DNA,” and any sample obtained “shall be submitted to an appropriate lab for analysis and entry of the resulting DNA profile in to CODIS,” with digitized fingerprints and palm prints required by § 1365(a)(7). § 1364(c) assigns the operational duty to the law enforcement supervision agencies — DOC, Parole, and Adult and Juvenile Probation — which must direct the offender to appear in person at the SORA-Office/DPS for the DNA sample, with DOC escorting those in custody, while § 1364(g) places the registry itself in an electronic database at DPS.
No law or program identified.
No law or program identified.
- No statute, audit, or dedicated funding.
No program or law identified.