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RALEIGH – North Carolina legislators are one step closer to passing a law that would allow DNA testing at the time of an arrest.

During a hearing Tuesday, members of a judicial house committee heard from both sides of the debate.

First, they heard from two mothers who share very similar stories. Karen Foster, of Surviving Parents Coalition, and Joan Berry, who is a proponent of the bill, have dealt with the heartache of losing their daughters.

“He stabbed her 27 times,” Berry said.

“She was brutally raped and murdered on September 1994,” Foster said. “Her killer was finally identified through a national database 12 years later.”

Both are proponents of DNA testing at the time of a felony arrest.

“The person that murdered Johnia had been in trouble before,” Berry said. “Had his DNA been tested, it would've only been a few weeks instead it was three and a half years.”

Under the bill, DNA collected from the arrested would be entered into databases.

But opponents say collecting DNA without a warrant is an invasion of privacy.

Currently, DNA is collected at the time of a conviction.

“I think the Constitution and the Fourth Amendment was set up to protect against this type of thing,” Sarah Preston, of the American Civil Liberties Union, said.

After passing several amendments, all but one representative voted in favor of the bill.

Even those against the bill said they were happy with the changes.

“I think providing an automatic expungant procedure and destroying the DNA sample, which is what really contains the most sensitive information, is very important,” Preston said.

Representatives have been working on the bill for a year and prosecutors said they are glad to see it moving one step closer.

“This is the 21st century and we need to be using 21st century crime solving tools,” Colon Willoughby, the Wake County District Attorney, said.

The tools may have kept these two mothers from the pain they still face.

“I still get very emotional and it's my prayer that no family will have to go through what we did,” Berry said.

In a statement, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said, “This is a positive step forward to solve cold cases and exonerate the innocent, but we still have more legislative hurdles to clear. Before it adjourns, the legislature should allow law enforcement to collect DNA from arrestees.”

Currently, 23 states allow DNA testing at the time of an arrest. The bill will now go before the House finance committee.