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WASHINGTON, October 9, 2004 - The US Senate today passed by voice vote an amended version of the “Justice for All Act of 2004″ (HR 5107). This anti-crime bill includes the “Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology Act” (HR 3214/S 1700) and crime victims’ rights legislation. The amended bill will be sent back to the US House of Representatives for final approval. This amendment has already been agreed upon in negotiations between the House and Senate.
The legislation provides much-needed funds to test a nationwide backlog of more than 300,000 rape kits and other crime scene evidence, funding for victims’ services through grants to prosecutor and defender offices, ensures access to post-conviction DNA testing for those serving time in prison or on death row for crimes they did not commit, and it authorizes grants to states to improve the quality of death penalty trials as well as assist families of murder victims.
… The bipartisan legislation has enjoyed the support of dozens of leaders from the victims’ rights community, who endorse both the Debbie Smith Backlog Grant and the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Programs.
Source: The Justice Project
What does this mean? It means that if this legislation passes it will provide funding to help people such as the West Memphis Three test newly obtained DNA and forensics information about their case which may prove their innocence. For anyone service a life sentence and waiting on death row, this is certainly a silver lining because the government is acknowledging that ths sytem is not perfect and will provide a way to determine if alleged false convictions are legitimate or not.
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