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Florida Eliminates DNA Testing Deadline
Loaded on July 15, 2007
published in Prison Legal News
July, 2007, page 20
During its 2006 Legislative session, the Florida Legislature enacted a law that eliminates deadlines for when prisoners can request DNA testing. That law comes on the heels of numerous prisoners being released from death row and imprisonment on lesser sentences for crimes they did not commit.
Previously, a four-year deadline had been imposed by law. The Florida Supreme Court extended that deadline, which was to expire in October 2005, until July 1, 2006. In the spring of 2006, lawmakers in Florida made a decision to eliminate deadlines for DNA testing.
The new law allows prisoners, regardless of whether they entered a plea or went to trial, to seek DNA testing at any time. While the new law applies to those convicted prior to enactment, it may severely limit DNA testing in cases where a plea is entered after July 1, 2007.
After that date, the judge must go through a plea colloquy that covers DNA testing, prohibiting later testing unless it is proven lawyers withheld knowledge about DNA evidence. This could affect innocent prisoners who accepted plea bargains by being bullied, threatened, or given bad legal advice.
Source: Associated Press; Florida House Bill 61.
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More from this issue:
- The New Asylum: Supermax as Warehouse for the Mentally Ill, by David C Fathi
- $27,500 Settlement for Rape of Four Women Prisoners in Pittsburgh Jail
- From the Editor, by Paul Wright
- Delaware Forced to Clean-up Medical Care by DOJ Settlement, by David Reutter
- Delaware DOC Still Defends Abysmal Medical Care, Prisoners Still Die From Medical Neglect
- Florida Boot Camp Death Results in Manslaughter Charges Against 7 Guards and Nurse; Civil Claims Settled for $7,425,000
- Colorado Settles Class Action Prison Disability Discrimination Suit For Over $3 Million
- BOP Settles “Terrorism” Classification Privacy Act Suit for $3,000
- Washington State’s Federal Oversight of Sexually Violent Predators Ended, by John Dannenberg
- $13,655,940 Award For False Massachusetts Rape Conviction, by Matthew Clarke
- Seminole County Jail Settles Strip Search Suits; Judge Removed From Bench
- Arkansas Ups Work-Release Fees to Pay for Guard-Drivers
- North Carolina Women Prisoners Work Call/Bulk Mail Centers For Slave Wages
- Prison Skin-Art Pared From Canadian Budget, by Gary Hunter
- Texas County Jail Settles Sex Assault Suits For Undisclosed Sum
- California Ban On Hardcover Books Held Unconstitutional, by John Dannenberg
- Florida Newspaper Revokes Permission to Post Article Critical of Judge
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- Prisoner’s Death Following Failure To Give Intake Medical Examination Settled By Los Angeles County For $700,000, by John Dannenberg
- Texas Prison Chief Escapes Sex Charges, Convicted of Lesser Offenses, by Gary Hunter
- $5 Million Jury Award Against Doctor in Death of Michigan Prisoner
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- California Lifers’ Parole Reversals Tossed by Two State Appellate Courts, by Marvin Mentor
- Move From Texas Legislator To Lobbyist Poses Ethical Question, by Gary Hunter
- Drunk PA DOC Attorney Charged in Hit-and-Run
- Satellite Surveillance Approved For Wisconsin Sex Offenders, by Gary Hunter
- Tennessee DOC’s Double Standard, by G.A. Bowers
- Louisville, Kentucky, Settles with Wrongly Imprisoned Man for $3.9 Million
- Temporary Restraining Order Suspends California’s Sex Offenders’ Housing Banishment Law, by John Dannenberg
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- San Francisco Civil Grand Jury Cites Continuing Jail Deficiencies, by John Dannenberg
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- Los Angeles County Pays Informant $80,000 For Failed Witness Protection
- Three Failures To Segregate Vulnerable Jail Prisoner Costs Los Angeles County $44,000
- $30,000 Settlement For Woman Raped By Missouri Jail Prisoner
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- News in Brief:
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