Last year, when lawmakers considered a bill requiring DNA samples of anyone arrested on a serious felony charge, state Rep. Ernest Hewett was a critic.
The New London Democrat, like other African American lawmakers, worried such a proposal would unfairly target minorities. He also feared it would infringe on people's civil liberties.
But Hewett said he went from a skeptic to a supporter after researching the proposal, which is once again on the legislative agenda after failing to get traction last year. "I took it as a project of mine to see what's really going on,'' he said. "And this just makes sense.''
Hewett and other supporters believe pre-conviction DNA will provide law enforcement officials with a powerful tool to catch criminals and perhaps even exonerate the innocent.
Not everyone agrees. The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut is opposed to the bill, saying it upends a longstanding principle of the American criminal justice system: that a person is innocent until proven guilty.
"There is a vast difference between using DNA as a tool in investigations - both to