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Sunday, February 22, 2009
Courts - "High Court to Hear DNA Testing Case: Justices to Debate Whether Convicts Should Be Guaranteed Access to Latest Techniques"
That is the headline to a lengthy story today by Robert Barnes of the Washington Post. Some quotes:
They are among more than 200 people nationwide who were freed because DNA tests performed after their convictions showed they could not have committed the crimes.The case, District Attorney's Office v. Osborne, is scheduled to be argued March 2. Access the briefs here.And they now have joined civil rights groups, some current and former prosecutors, and a convicted Alaskan rapist to urge the Supreme Court to apply constitutional protections for the first time to what the prisoners' lawyers call "arguably the most important development in the history of forensic science: the advent of DNA testing."
They are opposed by victims rights groups; the vast majority of states, which have a patchwork of laws granting DNA access; and the federal government. The governments say that creating a constitutional right to the testing would infringe on states' rights, overwhelm them with frivolous demands and create an endless right of appeal for those convicted of the most violent crimes.
"These statutes reflect a careful balancing of the government's interests in finality, comity, and conservation of scarce resources," lawyers for the state of Alaska argue, "against a prisoner's interest in justice in those rare cases" when innocence could be proven by new forensic technology.
It is the Supreme Court's first case that confronts the dilemma of how to deal with DNA evidence, which former attorney general John D. Ashcroft called the "truth machine of law enforcement."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 22, 2009 09:08 AM
Posted to Courts in general