NCJ Number
223365
Journal
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume: 98 Issue: 1 Dated: Fall 2007 Pages: 329-362
Date Published
2007
Length
34 pages
Annotation
This article discusses eight States that have yet to pass specific postconviction DNA testing statutes, and suggestions for strategies to bring vital relief to the wrongfully convicted.
Abstract
The article contends that there exists a variety of factors that have resulted in these States' inability, or unwillingness, to pass postconviction DNA testing legislation. While a tremendous focus on postconviction DNA statutes in academic and advocacy literature is acknowledged, it contends that no attention had been paid to the holes that remain, namely those States that have yet to pass specific postconviction DNA testing statutes. This article provides a chronicle of the DNA exoneration movement, with a brief overview of the enactment of State and Federal postconviction DNA testing legislation. Also discussed are the alternative legal avenues that prisoners within these States may explore in attempting to gain postconviction DNA testing. In so doing, it reveals deficiencies of the Federal legal system for handling these State claims and seeks to underscore the primary importance of enacting state postconviction DNA statutes. It identifies the remaining eight States that have failed to pass postconviction DNA testing statutes, and discussed the legal, political, and social obstacles each State has faced in its efforts to enact postconviction DNA testing legislation. The article concludes with suggestions to encouraged these last remaining States to pass statutes guaranteeing access to postconviction DNA testing, citing this as a crucial step in the larger effort to improve the criminal justice system, make communities safer, and correct injustices suffered by innocent persons. 172 notes