House Approves Funding For Dna Testing Of Death Row Inmates

[lovinbilly4ever]

this article was included in an email i just recieved from the NCADP....

HOUSE APPROVES FUNDING FOR DNA TESTING OF DEATH ROW INMATES
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NOVEMBER 7, 2003

The House agreed Wednesday to provide more than $1 billion for DNA testing to help prove the innocence of some death row inmates and the guilt of rapists and killers who may have gone free.

The legislation, passed by a 357-67 vote, would give states $755 million for working through a backlog of some 350,000 untested DNA samples in rape evidence kits in criminal laboratories.

"To have this tool available and not to fully use it is tragic," said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. "Many crimes could be solved, many guilty people could be taken off the streets, and many victims could be spared from further crimes."

Lawmakers, in a committee report on the legislation, cited the Green River killings, saying DNA evidence "provided a major breakthrough" in crimes that had remained unsolved for years.

Gary Ridgway pleaded guilty Wednesday to 48 of those murders in Seattle. Prosecutors said advances in DNA technology had allowed them to match a saliva sample taken from Ridgway in 1987 with DNA samples taken from the bodies of 3 of the earliest victims.

The bill also would provide $5 million a year for 5 years to help states cover the costs of DNA testing for death row inmates who claim they are innocent. States would be prohibited from denying inmates access to the testing as long as certain criteria are met.

Since 1976, when the Supreme Court allowed states to reinstate the death penalty, 111 people in 25 states have been cleared through DNA evidence. They have been released after spending years on death row for crimes they did not commit, while police resume the search for the true culprits.

"We have the means at our disposal to minimize the possibility of error, and especially where lives are at stake, we must use them, and especially when public safety is at stake, we must use them," said Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass.

Lawmakers have fought for 5 years to pass the legislation. Agreements were struck in the House and Senate in October; a similar bill is moving through the Senate.

The bill gives states money to improve the quality of legal representation provided to indigent defendants in capital cases. That brought some opposition from Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and other House members who said states should pay for and improve their own public defender systems.

"There seems to be no reason for Congress to finance the state public defender system," Flake said.

The House, by voice vote, also agreed to a 10-year extension of the ban on making or possessing plastic firearms. The Terrorist Firearm Detection Act of 1988 was last reauthorized in 1998 and expires in December.

Officials worry terrorists would be able to get their hands on plastic weapons that would have no metal parts to set off metal detectors at airports and other security checkpoints. "This is not the time to put our airports in jeopardy," Sensenbrenner said.

Added Rep. Robert Scott, D-Va.: "It is even more important than ever that we make our society less vulnerable to terrorist-related attacks."

A similar version is moving through the Senate.