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Balko on the Right to DNA Evidence

By Ed Brayton

Balko has an article at Reason about this week's Supreme Court case that will decide whether someone convicted of a crime has a right to access evidence that may exonerate them.

Does the U.S. Constitution permit an innocent person to be imprisoned or executed? Seems like a question with an obvious answer.

Here's another question: If a convict can establish irrefutable proof of his innocence with a simple DNA test, does he have a constitutional right to that test, even if he has exhausted his legal appeals?

The answer to both questions isn't at all clear, and may depend on how the Supreme Court rules in the case of District Attorney's Office v. Osborne, which it heard today. Surprisingly, 32 states, the city of New York, and the Obama administration are urging the Court to answer "no."

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Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on March 05, 2009 (boomark / email).