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

• Acts of 1997, ch. 106, “An Act Relative to the Enhancement of Forensic Technology,” approved September 30, 1997. Section 7 inserted the entire new Chapter 22E, establishing the state DNA database in the Department of State Police under a director responsible for DNA analysis and database administration. Section 3 required a sample within 90 days of conviction from persons convicted under enumerated provisions of c. 265 (§§ 1, 13, 13B, 13F, 13H, 14–18, 18A–18C, 22, 22A, 23, 24, 24B, 26), c. 266 §§ 14–15, and c. 272 (§§ 2, 3, 4A, 4B, 16, 17, 29, 29A, 29B, 35, 35A, 53A), including attempt and conspiracy, and barred any stay pending appeal or post-conviction motion. Section 8 of the act reached back to persons already incarcerated — sample due within 90 days of the effective date or before release, whichever came first — and to those on probation or parole, within 90 days.
• Acts of 2003, ch. 107, “An Act Relative to the State DNA Database,” approved November 12, 2003. The single most significant amendment. Section 1 struck the first sentence of § 3 and replaced the enumerated offense list with a categorical mandate: any person convicted of an offense punishable by imprisonment in the state prison, and any person adjudicated a youthful offender for conduct so punishable if committed by an adult, must submit a sample within 1 year of conviction or adjudication. Section 2 applied the new standard retroactively to anyone incarcerated in a prison, house of correction, or DYS facility on the effective date, and to those on probation or parole who had not previously submitted, with a one-year deadline. Note the deadline also moved from 90 days to one year.
• Acts of 2010, ch. 256, “An Act Reforming the Administrative Procedures Relative to Criminal Offender Record Information,” approved August 6, 2010. Section 55 amended G.L. c. 22E, § 9 only, striking “criminal history systems board” and inserting “department of criminal justice information services.” A conforming agency-name change with no effect on the collection mandate.
• Acts of 2012, ch. 192, “An Act Relative to Sentencing and Improving Law Enforcement Tools,” approved August 2, 2012. Amended §§ 3, 4, and 11 in five discrete strokes. Section 1 added an electronic notification requirement — the trial court and probation department must work with the director to build a system notifying the department whenever a conviction triggers a submission obligation. Sections 2 through 4 opened up collection under § 4 by striking “Only a” from the authorized-collector sentence, replacing “licensed” with “approved,” and adding buccal swabs as a collection method. Section 5 rewrote the § 11 penalty trigger from refusing to provide a sample to failing, after written notice, to provide one within 1 year of conviction, adjudication, or release from custody, whichever occurs first.
• Acts of 2018, ch. 69, “An Act Relative to Criminal Justice Reform.” Section 19 struck § 3 entirely and replaced it with the current two-subsection structure. Subsection (a) requires submission to the department or the commissioner of probation as a condition of probation forthwith upon conviction, or within 10 days of intake or return to the correctional facility if sentenced to imprisonment, and bars release from a correctional facility until a sample has been collected. Subsection (b) carries forward the electronic notification system, the § 4 collection authority, database entry, and the no-stay rule. Sections 20 and 21 amended § 4 to add probation officers as authorized collectors, Section 22 rewrote § 5 on collection materials, and Section 23 rewrote § 11 to penalize a person who “after notice, willfully fails” to provide a sample, punishable by a fine of up to $2,000, up to 6 months in a jail or house of correction, or both. Section 180 separately amended c. 276 to make c. 22E compliance an express condition of probation.

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 Lawfully Owed DN. See SB 1745 (2025/26, pending).

No program or law found.