At last, a bill that will go a long way toward standardizing the use of DNA in court cases has a chance of passage in Congress.
Published December 1, 2003
Legislation designed to give prison inmates greater access to DNA testing and improve legal representation for defendants facing capital charges finally has bipartisan support in Congress. Negotiations have taken a number of years, but a bill has now emerged that, except for a handful of disgruntled conservative Republicans, has the support of lawmakers in both parties.
DNA is a unique form of evidence that can often establish with certainty someone's guilt or innocence. According to the Innocence Project, the organization created by Barry Scheck to investigate prisoners' claims of innocence, 138 inmates have now been exonerated through DNA testing. Yet, there is a current backlog of 300,000 rape kits at the state level, leading to inexcusable delays that fail to serve either the accused or the victim.
Under the Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology Act of 2003, nearly $1-billion over five years would be authorized to speed along DNA testing in backlogged cases and provide grants to federal, state and local crime labs to improve their capacity to handle and analyze DNA. The bill also would give federal prisoners access to post-conviction DNA testing, if such tests could prove their innocence, and it would assist states that want to provide similar access to DNA testing to their own prison populations.
Another part of the proposed legislation would provide grants to states to help standardize the quality of legal representation offered defendants charged with capital crimes. The primary reason wrongful convictions occur is due to inadequate legal representation at trial. There have been too many documented cases where men facing the death penalty had their attorneys fall asleep during the trial or offer little defense at all. Even proponents of the death penalty have been uneasy with the rate of mistakes being uncovered.
Under the Advancing Justice Act, states could apply for grants to improve their system of providing capital representation. States accepting the grants would have to commit to a set of minimal standards. These standards are what some conservative Republicans in the Senate are balking at. But keeping those requirements in place is key to keeping future mistakes by defense attorneys to a minimum.
Much of this bill is to be applauded, though ultimately it is a compromise measure. An earlier provision would have prevented federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty in the states that don't currently have it. But that idea wasn't included in the latest version. Attorney General John Ashcroft has made it a centerpiece of his Justice Department to pursue capital charges against defendants in places where the death penalty is rarely invoked.
One of the most troubling provisions in the bill would open the FBI's DNA database to anyone who is arrested and not just adults convicted of crimes. That would markedly expand the database with information on people whose private genetic information should not be under long-term government control. This is the classic slippery slope. If the FBI can maintain DNA profiles on arrestees, then why not on all Americans? The Senate should remove this provision before passage of the legislation.
The bill has already passed the House, and Senate leaders have promised to move the measure along. Both parties appear to recognize that if we are to have a model criminal justice system, we must provide quick and ready access to DNA analysis.
