NCIP is proud to announce that SB 980, a bill that improves the process for obtaining post conviction DNA testing, passed the California State Senate today. The bill, authored by Senator Ted Lieu and sponsored by NCIP and other organizations, would increase wrongfully convicted prisoners’ ability to locate the physical and biological evidence preserved in their cases, and expand the number of laboratories approved to conduct DNA testing in California.
The bill was sponsored by the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP), the California Innocence Project, the Project for the Innocent at Loyola Law School, and the American Civil Liberties Union and makes the following specific improvements:
– Requires law enforcement agencies to provide information about the existence of biological evidence, such as whether it has been destroyed or preserved;
– Extends the period inmates and their counsel have to respond to a notice from law enforcement agencies to destroy evidence from 90 days to one year, and further extends a DNA test request deadline from six months to one year,
– Enables courts to order the relevant government agency to search the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database for a match in order to find the true perpetrator, in the event that the DNA test is granted and the results exclude the convicted person.
SB 980 will enable our state to identify wrongful convictions with more ease, exonerate the innocent, and continue the criminal investigation to catch the true perpetrator. These common sense reforms will also reduce years of needless, costly litigation that currently impacts our court system.
“We are delighted to see SB 980 pass the Senate,” said Cathy Dreyfuss, Director of the California DNA Project at the Northern California Innocence Project. “This bill will help us discover the truth more quickly for our incarcerated clients, and seek relief for those who were wrongfully convicted.”
SB 980 is another example of NCIP’s active legislative and advocacy efforts on behalf of the wrongfully convicted. In 2013, NCIP was instrumental in passing SB 618 authored by Sen. Mark Leno, which improves the process for compensating exonerated people. Additionally, NCIP sponsored SB 569, authored by Sen. Lieu, which helps to prevent false confessions by requiring that police departments videotape interrogations of juveniles accused of murder.
SB 980 now goes to the Assembly. Contact your Assembly Member and tell them to vote YES on SB 980. Find your Assembly Member here.
NCIP thanks Senator Ted Lieu for authoring SB 980 and for his dedication to justice. NCIP is proud to be assisting in its passage.
