High Court to Hear DNA Testing Case

Justices to Debate Whether Convicts Should Be Guaranteed Access to Latest Techniques

Sunday's Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/21/AR2009022101704.html

A MUST READ FOR CRIMINAL LAWYERS:

Highlights:

--More than 200 people nationwide have been freed because DNA tests performed after their convictions showed they could not have committed the crimes. This on the heels of the Forensics report last Friday.

---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."

----"Relying solely on the unfettered discretion of prosecutors to unlock the promise of DNA analysis can sanction injustice," said a brief filed on behalf of current and former prosecutors, including former attorney general Janet Reno.

Is there any doubt that with the number of inmates so wrongly convicted that we should do so much more to fund, research, and review the processes which have created and now perpetuate unconscionable levels of injustice? Any doubt at all?

Hell, it should be part of the stimulus package.