Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Kansas Federal Defender

Criminal Law

: Kansas Federal Defender

DNA at the Supreme Court

By Melody Evans and Kirk Redmond

The Washington Post reports that the US Supreme Court is considering review of a critical DNA issue -- whether one has a constitutional right to have DNA tested.Osborne was convicted, spent more than a decade in prison and gave a detailed confession to a parole board. But after recanting that confession, the Alaska man won a federal lawsuit seeking new DNA tests he now says can clear him, a judgment that was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. It is the first time an appellate court has ruled that an inmate has a federal constitutional right to such testing. Now, the government has sought cert, wanting to deny DNA testing as a constitutional right. This may have caught media attention just because of the Palin/Alaska hook, but this is a rather fundamental question of fairness and integrity...continue to full post

Full post as published by Kansas Federal Defender on November 03, 2008 (boomark / email).