LEGISLATION
DNA PRESERVATION:
Preserved evidence can help solve closed cases – and exonerate the innocent. Preserving biological evidence from crime scenes is critically important because DNA can provide the best evidence of innocence – or guilt – upon review of a case. On March 20, 2009, Governor Haley Barbour signed into law a bill that requires the state to preserve biological or DNA evidence gathered in felony investigations. Evidence was often discarded or somehow adulterated after a conviction, impeding the efforts of scientific advancement in proving actual innocence. This legislation effectively preserves evidence in all post-conviction cases. This further benefits Mississippi because, in 2004, Congress passed the Justice for All Act (H.R. 5107), which provides financial incentives for states to preserve evidence – and withholds those same monies for states that do not adequately preserve evidence.
Despite the acclaim that DNA testing receives nationwide, many prisoners are denied the ability to secure testing on any preserved evidence, even when it might display proof of actual innocence or irrefutable guilt and an inmate pays for the costs incurred for testing. Routinely, motions for such testing are simply denied. This law, Miss. Code s. 99-49-1, protects a person’s right to order DNA tests on evidence that might ultimately free them from wrongful imprisonment. MIP’s legislative team worked hard for this law to take effect, and our current filings are due in part to the successful passage of this bill.
EXONEREE COMPENSATION:
Little compares to the plight of the wrongfully convicted. Notwithstanding the vast emotional loss, the opportunities available to build skills necessary for a productive life, too, are lost. Often, they are released with nothing more than their personal effects from many years spent in prison. Many exonerees have no money, housing, transportation, or health insurance; limited education and job skills; and a lingering prison record despite innocence. Mississippi rectified this by passing a compensation law to assist exonerees in rebuilding their lives after suffering wrongful imprisonment. Otherwise, the only means of recompense was an often-lengthy civil suit against the state. MIP helped to introduce legislation that granted compensation to the wrongly convicted. The bill was passed in 2009. Please see here to explore the many opportunities to assist recent exonorees in rebuilding their lives.
STATE MEDICAL EXAMINER REFORM
This Spring, Haley Barbour signed into law bill 1456, an effort on the part of the Mississippi Innocence Project to create a state-wide standard for hired pathologists in criminal cases. The bill is simple: pathologists performing autopsies must now be certified in forensic pathology by the American Board of Pathology. Just as lawyers must be members of a state bar to practice law, and doctors must pass medical boards to practice medicine, the requirement sets a reasonable standard of competency and accountability for pathologists working in Mississippi.
This bill is particularly relevant to our work at the Mississippi Innocence Project, as we’ve seen how a poorly performed autopsy can lead to a wrongful conviction.
