The The Associated Press

ALBANY - Gov. George Pataki made a push for one of his biggest criminal justice goals Monday saying countless victims would be spared from violent crime if DNA samples are taken from criminals convicted of even low-level offenses early in their careers.

While Pataki pushed his plan to include all felony and misdemeanor offenders in the state DNA data bank, the Assembly's Democratic majority moved ahead with a bill that would more than double DNA collection but include only felonies and the most serious misdemeanors.

Assembly leaders will try to negotiate a deal with the Republican-led Senate, which favors the governor's plan. A compromise could be struck and approved by the scheduled end of the legislative session this week, said Charles Carrier, spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Violent crimes have been solved by comparing biological evidence - in a rape, for example - to the database to identify a suspect.

That identification is usually after a second or subsequent violent crime because the DNA sample isn't taken until after the first violent felony.

Pataki said 96 percent of felons now in the data base after their convictions for violent crimes had committed petit larceny.

Pataki, however, said that if the genetic sample of a rapist or murderer was in the database after his first conviction - even if it was for petit larceny years before - the criminal would be identified sooner.

“We can no longer delay,” said Mike Canavan of Hohokus, N.J., whose daughter was raped in her Manhattan apartment in 2000.

He said the rapist, with a gun and knife, used surgical gloves to make sure he left no fingerprints.

DNA evidence was collected, but it didn't match anyone in the data base.

The DNA collected at his daughter's apartment matched a subsequent rape, but there remains no name to which to match it.

“He's still out there,” Canavan said at Pataki's press conference.

“Do something,” pleaded Carol Dickerson of New York City, who was raped in a car jacking in Queens.

The database has had 2,500 “hits” since it began in the late 1990s.

It has directly resulted in more than 500 convictions, including 300 rapes, and contributed to many more convictions, said Chauncey Parker, Pataki's director of criminal justice services, in data released Monday.

That's with only one of every seven criminals subject to DNA sampling, he said.

There is no proof in public reports that links DNA to substantial convictions, said Stephen Saloom, policy director of The Innocence Project.

He questioned the Pataki administration's claim about convictions resulting from the data base, a report not released publicly.

“Expanding New York's already-troubled DNA database might serve political interests, but it fails to bring justice to crime victims, protect the public, or respect the innocent,” the nonprofit stated.

Assembly leaders say the system couldn't safely or accurately handle a huge influx of new samples to as many as 80,000 a year compared to the current 26,000.

Pataki says the police lab will be able to handle 96,000 by March.

“The Assembly Majority wants to ensure that when we expand the DNA database we do so in an effective manner that ensures accuracy, protects the privacy of innocent persons and provides the best quality forensic work in the nation,” Silver said.

The current law captures the DNA of about 14 percent of those convicted of crimes in a year.

The Democratic Assembly version would include all felonies and selected, serious misdemeanors.

That would capture about 36 percent. The new crimes under its version would include assault, threats against children, menacing, stalking, and criminal trespassing.