Today’s question: Should Walker veto DNA testing upon arrest

By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON – You probably won’t find a more ardent supporter of expanded DNA testing than Sen. Jennifer Shilling.

The La Crosse Democrat’s parents were among seven people killed in 1993 in the gruesome, cold-blooded murders at Brown’ Chicken & Pasta in suburban Chicago.

Shilling was 23 at the time.

Last month the lawmaker made a passionate plea on the Senate floor in support of a budget provision that gives police power to take DNA samples from anyone arrested on a felony charge.

After all, improved DNA testing helped track down her parents’ killers nearly a decade after their murders.

“To know there is a database bank of DNA, it gives survivors – I hate to be called a victim – it gives survivors hope. It gives victims’ families hope,” Shilling said during Senate debate on the measure.