Illinois General Assembly - Illinois Compiled Statutes

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725 ILCS 5/116-4

(725 ILCS 5/116-4)

Sec. 116-4. Preservation of evidence for forensic testing.

(a) Before or after the trial in a prosecution for a violation of
Section 11-1.20, 11-1.30, 11-1.40, 11-1.50, 11-1.60, 12-13, 12-14, 12-14.1,
12-15, or 12-16 of the
Criminal Code of 1961 or the Criminal Code of 2012 or in a prosecution for an offense defined in Article 9
of
that Code,
or in a prosecution for an attempt in violation of Section 8-4 of that Code
of any of the above-enumerated
offenses, unless otherwise provided herein under subsection (b) or (c), a law
enforcement agency
or an agent acting on behalf of the law enforcement agency shall
preserve, subject to a continuous chain of
custody, any
physical evidence
in their possession or control that is reasonably likely to contain forensic
evidence,
including, but not limited to, fingerprints or biological material
secured in relation to a trial and with sufficient
documentation to locate
that evidence.

(b) After a judgment of conviction is entered,
the evidence shall
either be impounded
with the Clerk of the Circuit Court or shall be securely retained by a law
enforcement agency.
  Retention shall be
until the
completion of the sentence, including the period of mandatory supervised
release for the
offense, or January 1, 2006, whichever is later, for any conviction for an
offense or an attempt of an offense defined
in Article 9 of the Criminal Code of 1961 or the Criminal Code of 2012 or in Section 11-1.20, 11-1.30, 11-1.40, 11-1.50, 11-1.60, 12-13, 12-14, 12-14.1,
12-15, or
12-16 of the Criminal Code of 1961 or the Criminal Code of 2012 or for 7 years following any conviction for any other felony for which
the
defendant's
genetic profile may be taken by a law enforcement agency and submitted for
comparison in a forensic DNA database for unsolved offenses.

(c) After a judgment of conviction is entered, the
law
enforcement agency
required to retain evidence described in subsection
(a) may petition the court
with notice to the
defendant or, in cases where the defendant has died, his estate, his attorney
of record, or an attorney appointed for that purpose by the court
for entry
of an order allowing it to dispose of evidence if, after a
hearing, the court
determines by a preponderance of the evidence that:

(1) it has no significant value for forensic science

analysis and should be returned to its rightful owner, destroyed, used for training purposes, or as otherwise provided by law; or

(2) it has no significant value for forensic science

analysis and is of a size, bulk, or physical character not usually retained by the law enforcement agency and cannot practicably be retained by the law enforcement agency; or

(3) there no longer exists a reasonable basis to

require the preservation of the evidence because of the death of the defendant.

(d) The court may order the disposition of the evidence if the
defendant is allowed
the opportunity to take reasonable measures to remove or preserve portions of
the evidence in
question for future testing.

(d-5) Any order allowing the disposition of evidence pursuant to
subsection (c)
or (d)
shall be a final and appealable order.  No evidence shall be disposed of until
30 days after
the order is entered, and if a notice of appeal is filed, no evidence shall be
disposed of
until the mandate has been received by the circuit court from the appellate
court.

(d-10) All records documenting the possession,
control, storage, and destruction of evidence and all police reports, evidence
control or inventory records, and other reports cited in this Section,
including computer records, must be
retained for as
long as the evidence exists and may not be disposed of without the approval of
the Local
Records Commission.

(e) In this Section, "law enforcement agency"
includes any of the following or an agent acting on behalf of any of the
following:
a municipal police department, county sheriff's office, any prosecuting
authority,
the Illinois State Police, or any other State, university, county,
federal, or
municipal police
unit or police force.

"Biological material" includes, but is not limited to, any blood, hair,
saliva, or semen from which
genetic marker groupings may be obtained.

(Source: P.A. 102-538, eff. 8-20-21; 103-51, eff. 1-1-24.)