15A-266.12. Confidentiality of records.

(a) All DNA profiles and samples submitted to the Crime Laboratory pursuant to this Article shall be treated as confidential and shall not be disclosed to or shared with any person or agency except as provided in G.S. 15A-266.8.

(b) Only DNA records and samples that directly relate to the identification of individuals shall be collected and stored. These records and samples shall solely be used as a part of the criminal justice system for the purpose of facilitating the personal identification of the perpetrator of a criminal offense; provided that in appropriate circumstances such records may be used to identify potential victims of mass disasters or missing persons.

(c) DNA records and DNA samples submitted to the Crime Laboratory pursuant to this Article are not a public record as defined by G.S. 132-1.

(d) In the case of a criminal proceeding, requests to access a person's DNA record shall be in accordance with the rules for criminal discovery as defined in G.S. 15A-902. The Crime Laboratory shall not be required to provide the State DNA Database for criminal discovery purposes.

(e) DNA records and DNA samples submitted to the Crime Laboratory may only be released for the following authorized purposes:

(1) For law enforcement identification purposes, including the identification of human remains, to federal, State, or local criminal justice agencies.

(2) For criminal defense and appeal purposes, to a defendant who shall have access to samples and analyses performed in connection with the case in which such defendant is charged or was convicted.

(3) If personally identifiable information is removed to local, State, or federal law enforcement agencies for forensic validation studies, forensic protocol development or quality control purposes, and for establishment or maintenance of a population statistics database.

(f) In order to maintain the computer system security of the Crime Laboratory DNA database program, the computer software and database structures used by the Crime Laboratory to implement this Article are confidential.