Editorial: Alabama’s DNA laws fall short

07.30.07

Alabama is one of eight states in the country that lacks a state law allowing inmates to seek post-conviction DNA testing to prove innocence. Last week, the state executed Darrell Grayson despite his repeated attempts to seek DNA testing that could have proved his innocence or confirmed his guilt.

An editorial in yesterday’s Birmingham News called for Alabama to join the

42 states

that offer post-conviction DNA testing.

Gov. Bob Riley could have, and should have, delayed Grayson's execution long enough to allow for a test. He did not.

If there's good to come from this, it's that the case is a reminder of how Alabama's law has not kept up with the times when it comes to scientific advances in criminal investigations.


Read the full editorial here

. (Birmingham News, 07/29/2007)

And an editorial in yesterday’s Baltimore Sun said that the nation’s 205 DNA exonerations have revealed serious fissures across the American criminal justice system. The editorial calls for reforms nationwide – on eyewitness identifications, snitch testimony, videotaping interrogations, indigent defense and more.

Read the full editorial here

.

See reforms state by state on our

National View maps

and read more in our

Fix the System

section.

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