Evidence Preservation in Illinois
State statute requires the automatic preservation of any physical evidence in cases related to a homicide, sexual offense, attempts, or any felony for which a genetic profile may be added to the database. The evidence must be maintained until the completion of the sentence, including the period of mandatory supervised release, for convictions of attempted homicide, criminal sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual assault, predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, criminal sexual abuse, or aggravated criminal sexual abuse. When a genetic profile has been obtained by a law enforcement agency following any non-felony convictions and submitted for comparison in a forensic DNA database, the state statute requires that the evidence in those cases be preserved for 7 years following any conviction. Effective: 2001; Amended most recently: 2013.
Illinois’ statute meets the best practices standards outlined by the NIST Technical Working Group on Biological Evidence Preservation.