May 30, 2007
NASHVILLE (WATE) -- Gov. Bredesen signed a bill into law Wednesday that requires anyone arrested for a violent crime to give a DNA sample.
The law is named after unsolved murder victim Johnia Berry, 21, who was stabbed to death in Knoxville in 2004 by someone who entered her apartment. Investigators have a DNA sample that doesn't match anyone in current databases.
The new law requires DNA samples to be taken from persons booked for violent felonies after January 1.
The charges that will require samples include:
- First or second degree murder
- Especially aggravated kidnapping or aggravated kidnapping
- Aggravated assault
- Aggravated child abuse
- Especially aggravated robbery, aggravated robbery or robbery
- Car jacking
- Sexual battery by an authority figure, aggravated sexual battery, statutory rape by an authority figure or aggravated statutory rape
- Aggravated rape, rape or rape of a child
- Aggravated arson
- Especially aggravated burglary or aggravated burglary
- Criminal responsibility or facilitating commission of or being an accessory after the fact in any of the above offenses
The measure was unanimously approved in April in the Senate, where it was sponsored by Speaker Ron Ramsey in response to Berry's murder.
Previously, state law only required DNA samples from convicted violent offenders.
To be caught, Berry's killer will have to be arrested for another violent crime after the bill becomes law.
The Berry family attended the signing ceremony in Nashville. They strongly believe whoever stabbed Johnia to death has committed other crimes or will in the future. So the DNA database could help solve this murder and give them some closure.
"I do have hope. I do think that, you know, possibly it would help her case further down the road. That's our prayer and, you know I guess the next happiest day for us will be when someone is arrested," Joan Berry says.
"Maybe this will help other families and they won't have to endure what we've gone through," Joan adds.
Local law enforcement officials say the Johnia Berry Act will help solve violent crimes and they expect it to help with cold cases in the area.
"If we go to a major scene like a homicide, we might not have suspects in the beginning. So we can submit these samples into the database and it may provide us with a suspect," says Knox County sheriff's Lt. Mike Grissom.
According to a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation database, in 2005 and 2006 there were 849 murders with 227 remaining unsolved. Two of the unsolved cases are in Knox County. Eight of them are in the city of Knoxville.
The Johnia Berry Act also designates the TBI's Knoxville Office as the "Johnia Berry Field Office."
