Capitol Hill debates DNA testing in capital crimes

June 13, 2000
Web posted at: 4:32 PM EDT (2032 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Congressional debate over the broad, newly minted election-year issue of capital punishment continued Tuesday during a Senate hearing on the use of DNA testing to re-examine death penalty cases and other serious criminal convictions.

"While reasonable people can differ about capital punishment, it is indisputable that advanced DNA testing lends support and credibility to the accuracy and integrity of capital verdicts," said Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

Illinois Governor George Ryan, a Republican, triggered the first major shift in death-penalty politics last January, when he declared a moratorium on executions in his state after no fewer than 13 death-row inmates were freed when new evidence cast doubt on their guilt.

Since then, liberals and conservatives alike have called for a death penalty moratorium to re-examine the use and fairness of capital punishment.

Last week, Texas Gov. George W. Bush approved his first 30-day reprieve in a death penalty case to allow time for DNA testing. The Republican presidential hopeful announced the reprieve after permitting 131 executions. And, in a display of bipartisanship, Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) and Gordon Smith (R-Oregon) introduced legislation last week that would grant convicted offenders in both state and federal cases the right to apply for forensic DNA testing if applicable to their cases. The bill would apply to capital and serious non-capital offenses.

The measure would also provide federal grants to help state and local law enforcement agencies develop or improve DNA analysis capability. Currently, only two states, New York and Illinois, insist on giving inmates on death row access to new DNA technology.

"In New York, the existence of DNA evidence has led to post-conviction exonerations in at least seven cases. Thus, seven innocent individuals have been released thanks to this science and to our statutory guidelines," New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer told the Senate panel during Tuesday's hearing.

Eliot said that New York allows inmates to petition for testing only after a state court determines that evidence containing the DNA was secured in connection with the trial, and that there exists a reasonable probability that the verdict would have been more favorable to the defendant.

Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson voiced opposition to the proposed mandate, arguing that it "awards new avenues of appeal for convicted murderers and years of additional anguish for the families of their victims." He said states could be determine the necessity for DNA testing.

Edmondson said that his office established a procedure for DNA review of all death penalty cases nearing the end of their appeals, and found that "no such case has arisen" that justified a need for DNA testing. "Before we mandate a DNA test in an individual case or by legislation we should ask ourselves what, exactly, do we hope to prove or disprove. The essential question should be: If this test turns out exactly the way the applicant hopes it turns out, will it show the applicant is innocent?"

Edmondson maintained that in most cases DNA testing is inapplicable because there are no samples connected to the suspect available for testing. He added that the identity of the perpetrator is often not at issue in appeals cases.

He said that state law in the Sooner State allows convicts to apply for DNA testing if their exists an "opportunity for conclusive or near conclusive proof that the person is factually innocent by reason of scientific evidence." But a report released Monday found that two-thirds of the appeals launched in death penalty cases from 1973 through 1995 were successful, an indication that the nation's capital punishment system is "collapsing under the weight of its own mistakes."

A study of appeals during those years showed that most cases "are so seriously flawed that they have to be done over again," said Columbia University law professor James Liebman, the study's lead author.

The report examined 4,578 death penalty cases in which at least one round of appeals was completed. Of those cases, a state or federal court threw out the conviction or death sentence in 68 percent of the cases.

"It's not one case, it's thousands of cases. It's not one state, it's almost all of the states," Liebman said in an interview. "You're creating a very high risk that some errors are going to get through the process."

The study found that the main reasons why death penalty convictions are thrown out appear to be incompetent defense lawyers and misconduct by prosecutors. The Columbia study also said only 5 percent of the 5,760 death sentences imposed from 1973 through 1995 were carried out.

Tuesday, June 13, 2000

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• Stakes are high in California congressional race
  
• Video: The ups and downs of unscientific election forecasting
  
• Gore kicks off 'prosperity tour' in New York
  
• Capitol Hill debates DNA testing in capital crimes
  
• Clinton urges Congress to pass patients' bill of rights after Supreme Court ruling
  
• Circus elephants are main attraction at congressional inquiry
  
• Drug coverage must be added to Medicare while the money's there, Clinton says
  
• A sometime step in the VP dance: Saying 'no' before you're asked
  
• Ex-congressman sentenced to three months in halfway house for criminal contempt
  
• Mayor Giuliani still won't say how he will treat cancer
  
• Report: Danforth pulls name from list of potential Bush running mates
  
• Congressional seats draw heavy GOP competition in two states
  
• White House claims rural elderly will suffer under GOP drug plan
  
• Clinton and Dole attend fund-raiser for Sen. Dodd
  
• First lady, House whip share foster care award
  

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