Today the Supreme Court of the United States handed down their ruling in the case of D.A.'s Office for the Third Judicial District v. Osborne, finding that inmates are not constitutionally guaranteed the right to test evidence for DNA. In a 5-4 decision, the justices ruled against Mr. Osborne, a resident of Alaska. 46 states have laws allowing some inmates the right to post-conviction testing. Massachusetts, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Alaska do not explicitly allow the testing. The majority opinion, written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., seems to have considered this as part of their ruling, reasoning that the matter should be left to state legislatures to consider.
Mr. Osborne was represented by Peter Neufeld, a co-founder of The Innocence Project.
The full text of the court opinion is available here
Article from the New York Times here
Article from the Boston Globe here
NEIP provides pro bono legal assistance to inmates who have claims of actual innocence. NEIP's mission is to represent persons wrongly convicted in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island or Vermont and to advocate for the reform of our criminal justice system.
