Blocking Access to DNA Testing

by Diane Fanning

In Louisiana, Kenneth Reed sits in prison convicted of rape. He continues to claim his innocence and file appeals. A simple DNA test could confirm his guilt or throw his 1991 conviction into doubt. The prosecutor is blocking that testing as hard as he can even though though the state of Louisiana is one of forty-six states to give that right to inmates.

For the past three years, an Illinois state attorney has been obstructing DNA testing for Johnnie Lee Savory (right), convicted of a double homicide in 1977 when he was 14 years old, insisting that the jury didn't need DNA to convict. A ridiculous statement considering the fact that there have been 175 exonerations by DNA.

State after state, the story continues--prosecutors balking at the tests that could actually confirm the guilt of the inmate or point to possible innocence. Certainly, all claims of innocence are not valid just as DNA testing is not always the whole answer to every case. But even if it doesn't tell the whole story, it is a vital piece of the puzzle.

Hearing all these prosecutors battle against the revelation of all the facts and truth in a case makes you wonder if they understand the meaning of justice, have any concept of their mission, or remember they are representing us in the courtroom, not themselves. Too many of them have prioritized winning over truth and justice, making a mockery of the law they are sworn to uphold.

Fortunately, not all of the people’s representatives in the court of law have lost sight of the meaning behind their calling. One sterling example of a prosecutor with a clear vision of his mission is Craig Watkins (right) in Dallas County, Texas.

Watkins took office in January 2007 inheriting a staff that possessed a win-at-any-costs mentality embedded in the office culture by legendary Dallas County prosecutor Henry Wade. Wade actually bragged about obtaining convictions on innocent people--he said it proved his tremendous skill as a prosecutor.

In July 2007, Watkins established the Conviction Integrity Unit charged with the oversight of four hundred post-conviction reviews where DNA could provide answers. He staffed it with one assistant district attorney, one investigator and one legal assistant who work in conjunction with the Innocence Project of Texas. It is the first division of its kind in the United States.

Since its inception, the unit has called for testing in forty cases of claimed innocence. As a result, nineteen men were determined to be wrongfully convicted and ten innocent men have been set free from Texas prisons. Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project said: "Sometimes district attorneys are reluctant to admit that a mistake was made. What he proved is if the district attorney's office is not afraid to admit that a mistake was made and correct it, then juries will reward them for it. By doing justice, you establish credibility."

It's not all one-sided in Dallas County as a single viewing of Dallas DNA on the Investigation Discovery channel demonstrates. Many men requesting the genetic testing to clear their names are informed that, to the contrary, it confirmed their guilt. I imagine most of those inmates were just gambling that the science would fail and a mistake in the lab would set them free. A few had probably lied so long, they'd forgotten the truth. Either way, the jury verdict was confirmed as just and true.

There are those out there who are not moved by the thought of an innocent person in jail. They tend to think that those people probably committed another crime and just got away with it--so what difference does it make to keep them behind bars. This cynical attitude overlooks one very important problem--a complication that leaves all of us less safe, by exposing us to the predation of more rapists, killers and molesters.

Every time an innocent person is wrongfully convicted, there is a guilty person--perhaps a very violent person--who walks free able to re-offend. Brandon Garrett, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, analyzed 225 cases of DNA exoneration. In 98 of those cases, the new information led straight to the actual perpetrator allowing law enforcement to get the guilty man off of the streets.

Conviction at any cost is simply not in our best interests, even if we never end up in a courtroom on either side of the aisle. Self-preservation alone should prod all of us into demanding that prosecutors in our jurisdiction care more about justice than they do about winning. I don't expect perfection from the state's attorneys--they are human, there will be mistakes.

But I do expect prosecutors to care about these errors, to be willing to admit to them and to do everything possible to restore justice to wrongfully convicted inmates.

After all, as citizens, it is in their best interests, too.

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