Proven guilty: An examination of the penalty-free world of post-conviction DNA testing

• Autores: Gwendolyn Carroll
• Localización: The journal of criminal law and criminology, ISSN 0091-4169, ISSN-e 2160-0325, Vol. 97, Nº. 2, 2007 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Symposium: Technological Change and the Evolution of Criminal Law), págs. 665-698
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The phenomenon of exonerations of wrongfully convicted prisoners through post-conviction DNA testing has received extensive and very positive media coverage. However, post-conviction DNA testing, more ofien than not, provides either inconc/usive results or, in many cases, conji;-ms the guilt of the prisoner seeking testing. In addition, DNA testing is costly, timeconsuming, and pro vides an additional administrative burden on already over-extended state criminal justice systems. Only one state in the country, Missouri, has a statutory pro vis ion that sanctions petitioners who seek guilt-conjirming, post-conviction DNA tests. This Comment proposes and evaluates four possible solutions to the problem of this unrecognized and unnecessary burden on the justice system, and advocates for the adoption of a system by which petitioners whose tests confirm guilt would be sanctioned through the loss of good time credit, which is given to prisoners as a reward for exemplary conduct in prison