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Alaska Case At U.S. Supreme Court Could Expand DNA Evidence Tests

By David Badertscher, PLL

<p><font size="2"><strong>Source: </strong><em>Crime and Justice News, </em>November 3, 2008.</font></p> <p><font size="2">"William Osborne was accused of raping a prostitute at gunpoint, beating her with an ax handle, and leaving her for dead in the snow. His lawyer declined a DNA test of the evidence, thinking that it would confirm his guilt, says the Washington Post. The Alaska man was convicted and, spent more than a decade in prison, but he won a federal appeals court ruling seeking new DNA tests he now says can clear him. It is the first time an appellate court has ruled that an inmate has a federal constitutional right to such testing." </font></p> <p><font size="2">"The Supreme Court agreed today to review the case in a case that pits the administration of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin against a Republican-appointed judge who accuses her state attorney general of being 'obstinate' in blocking Osborne from testing the evidence used to convict him. The case has focused attention on a legal venue that has been largely exempted from the national movement toward post- conviction DNA testing: the federal courts. More than 220 wrongfully convicted inmates have been exonerated by DNA tests since 1989, including 17 on death row, according to the New York-based Innocence Project, which is representing Osborne. Nearly all DNA lawsuits are filed in state courts because 44 state laws allow inmates to petition for post-conviction testing. If the Supreme Court upheld a federal right to testing, it could put pressure on the remaining six states, including Alaska, to pass DNA laws." </font></p> <p><a href="http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001GJ6O25nJaFl17FcPa-gvCvRP_KuluFCsT1qKpibX8geBslWLUntA5OL_S0qPySfsYOn5sq6jQ0-dEKMn-4-qJc5Q0vMBZdmUWhlRUwAJCFBwxZQea7lYxhXWuFK-U81XF9b19WNJsDb2WSO4awPeB7iPniQQN-mqp2vbgrHPVjKtrtUCwbrydHsBvcC3G2ovS78qJQttt9OtWl55RbG-iQ==" shape="rect" color="#0000FF" target="_blank"><font size="2">Washington Post</font></a></p>

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on November 03, 2008 (boomark / email).