SANTA FE - Friends of Katie Sepich, raped and murdered at 22, filled the governor's office Tuesday to lobby for a bill that would require DNA samples of every person arrested for a felony.

Republican Gov. Susana Martinez said expanding the DNA database would be a weapon in making the state safer. Several Democrats joined her at a news conference to pledge their help, saying collecting more DNA samples would solve and prevent crimes.

"This bill is not about politics. It's not partisan. It's about our families," said Rep. Al Park, D-Albuquerque, who is sponsoring the measure in the House. It is HB 256.

Sen. Vernon Asbill, a Republican from Sepich's hometown of Carlsbad, today will introduce an identical version in the Senate.

Twelve states have laws requiring a DNA sample from every person arrested in a felony, and New Mexico should follow their lead, Martinez said.

New Mexico has a less comprehensive DNA collection system that legislators approved in 2006. Called Katie's Law in honor of Sepich, it requires police to obtain DNA from people arrested in a subset of felonies, mostly crimes of violence.

Martinez said this law had helped solve 173 crimes by matching the DNA from those arrested to rape or murder cases.

Park said more extensive DNA collections would solve even more crimes. Those arrested for forgery or receiving stolen property often commit violent crimes as well, he said.

Critics of expanding Katie's Law include the ACLU and defense attorneys. They

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say it would create broad police powers in which people arrested but never convicted of anything would be forced to provide DNA, which could remain for years in the government database.

For her part, Martinez said collecting DNA was no threat to the innocent, and no different from fingerprinting those who are arrested.

Martinez, formerly the district attorney of Do-a Ana County, prosecuted Sepich's killer, Gabriel Avila.

Sepich was a graduate business student at New Mexico State University in 2003 when Avila, a stranger, raped and strangled her.

Though police arrested Avila in a burglary three months after Sepich's death, he did not have to submit to a DNA sample for almost three years. Only after he pleaded guilty in the burglary did he have to consent to a cheek swab for DNA.

His DNA matched that from blood and skin underneath Sepich's fingernails. Avila eventually confessed to her murder and is serving a 69-year prison sentence.

Martinez said justice would have been achieved years earlier had a comprehensive DNA testing law been in place.

Dozens of people from Carlsbad, most wearing yellow buttons with Sepich's picture, listened to Martinez's rendition of the case. One was Amy Barnhart, a friend of Sepich's since junior high school.

"She had the biggest personality there ever was," Barnhart said. "When someone with such a big presence is taken, it leaves such a void."

Another Carlsbad resident, Vivian Allen, simply said: "It still hurts."

Asbill was superintendent of schools in Carlsbad when Sepich graduated from high school. He handed her her diploma. He said 37 of the 42 state senators already had signed on to support an expansion of Katie's Law.

Even so, Asbill said, the bill still could have a tough go in the Senate, where members of the Judiciary Committee may have doubts about more state-ordered DNA collections.

Park said he was confident the bill would receive approval, given its overwhelming support from both parties.

Santa Fe Bureau Chief Milan Simonich can be reached at msimonich@tnmnp. com or (505) 820-6898. His blog is at http://elpasotimes.typepad.com/newmexico.