DNA TESTING

Congress Approves Justice for All Act of 2004

On October 30, 2004, President George W. Bush signed the Justice for All Act of 2004, Pub. L. No. 108-405, which Congress designed to expand access to DNA testing for rape victims and convicted felons. Congress enacted the statute to provide funding to improve legal representation in death penalty cases, but critics have attacked Bush for failing to include the amount called for in the legislation in the current budget.

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate considered bills in 2003 that would provide rape victims and convicted felons with greater access to DNA testing. Representative F. James Sensenbrenner (R.-Wis.), along with 249 co-sponsors, introduced the Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology Act of 2003, H.R. 3214, 108th Cong., 1st Sess., on October 1, 2003. Approximately one month later, the House passed the bill. During this same time period, Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R.-Utah) introduced similar legislation with the same title as the House bill, S. 1700, 108th Cong., 1st Sess. (2003). The Senate referred its bill to the Committee on the Judiciary.

The Senate received the House bill on November 6, 2003, but took no action on the bill for the remainder of that year. In 2004, Sensenbrenner introduced subsequent legislation entitled the Justice for All Act of 2004, H.R. 5107, 108th Cong., 2d Sess. The new House bill added some provisions from the Senate bill relating to victims' rights. The House approved the bill by a vote of 393 to 14 on October 6, 2004. Three days later, the Senate passed the bill with unanimous consent. Bush signed the bill on October 30, 2004.

The Justice for All Act consists of four titles. The first title, named the Scott Campbell, Stephanie Roper, Wendy Preston, Louarna Gillis, and Nila Lynn Crime Victims' Rights Act, extends a number of rights to the victims of crimes. Under this title, crime victims are entitled to be protected from the accused perpetrator of a crime; to be given timely notice of any proceeding pertaining to the accused; and not to be excluded from any such proceeding. The statute also allows crime victims to confer with a government attorney in cases involving those accused of a crime and to receive full and timely restitution for crimes against the victims.

Congress named Title II of the statute the Debbie Smith Act of 2004. Smith, then a resident of Williamsburg, Virginia, was brutally attacked and raped in her home in 1989. A local hospital collected a rape kit, but authorities were unable to identify the attacker for six years. In 1995, an employee with the Virginia Division of Forensic Science matched the DNA from the rape kit with the DNA of Norman Jimmerson, who was incarcerated on another charge at that time. Based on the DNA evidence, Jimmerson received two life sentences plus 25 years for Smith's rape. Smith has since become an advocate for victims' rights.

The Debbie Smith Act contains a number of provisions that are designed to reduce the backlog of DNA samples from an estimated 350,000 untested samples in rape kits. The act provides approximately $755 million over a five-year period to accomplish this purpose. Title II also amends several preexisting statutes pertaining to DNA identification and to violence against women. Title III of the act, the DNA Sexual Assault Justice Act of 2004, directs the U.S. Attorney General to allot grants for a number of programs related to the collection, identification, preservation, and testing of DNA samples and DNA evidence.

Title IV of the statute, the Innocence Protection Act of 2004, focuses on improvements in the use of DNA testing in federal criminal cases and improved legal representation of indigents in capital murder cases. This title was inspired in part by Kirk Bloodsmith of Maryland, who spent nine years in prison, including two on death row, on rape and murder charges. DNA testing later exonerated Bloodsmith of these crimes.

Subtitle A of Title IV amends the current federal criminal code that requires federal courts to order DNA testing of convicted felons. The statute allows a person who is sentenced to imprisonment or death to submit a motion to a federal court to request DNA testing related to the crime. A prisoner must satisfy a series of requirements in order to apply the statute. The act requires the Federal Bureau of Investigation to carry out the DNA testing, with some exceptions. Subtitle B of the statute requires that the Attorney General provide states with grants that will improve legal representation of indigents in death penalty cases.

The total funding provided in the statute amounted to $1.4 billion. This includes $350 million to improve legal representation in death penalty cases, $755 million to clear the backlog of DNA samples in rape cases, and $155 million for victims' assistance programs. Many members of Congress hailed the bipartisan effort. "We are all too familiar with the exonerations, with the frailty of the justice system," Representative William Delahunt (D.-Mass.) told the The Patriot Ledger of Quincy, Massachusetts. "This [statute] will provide the opportunity for the American people to say something is being done as far as the quality of justice is concerned in this country."

During his State of the Union address in 2005, President Bush stated that he was committed to improving legal representation of defendants on death row. However, Bush came under fire in February when his budget proposal failed to allot the funding that was established in the statute. Bush allocated $50 million over a three-year period to improve training of prosecutors and defense lawyers in capital murder cases. The statute calls for $350 million over a five-year period. "It was a step forward for the president to at last acknowledge the problem of indigent defense in state capital cases, and we welcome the president's words," said Senator Patrick Leahy (D.-Vt.), a primary supporter of the legislation in the Senate. "But any serious commitment to addressing this problem must start with the counsel program authorized in the Justice for All Act."