A month after a Florida Death Row inmate was cleared of a murder by a drop of his blood, Gov. Jeb Bush has signaled support for DNA testing for convicted murderers who may be able to prove their innocence through science.

The state is considering allowing the testing and paying the estimated $1,500 cost per test -- for Death Row inmates who can show DNA evidence could set them free.

Bush wrote that his policy as governor has been not to sign death warrants until

DNA evidence that could free the inmate has been examined.

In the case of Frank Lee Smith, who once came within three days of being executed, that evidence came too late. The results that cleared the former Broward resident last month of the 1985 murder of Shandra Whitehead came 11 months after he died in prison of cancer. The test by the FBI was performed on blood taken from his body after his death.

A growing number of states provide for post-conviction DNA testing if the inmate can show the results would cast reasonable doubt on the conviction, said Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project, which pushes for DNA tests in murder cases and helped in Smith's case.

In many states, defense attorneys are barred from introducing the evidence after a statute of limitations has expired, yet many inmates were imprisoned before DNA tests were available.

To date, 81 people in the United States have been freed by post-conviction DNA testing, including 10 from Death Row, Scheck said.

But Scheck said the testing shouldn't be limited to only those facing execution. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement's crime lab would be able to run DNA tests -- done on body fluids found at crime scenes -- for every Florida Death Row inmate who met the yet-to-be-determined criteria, said Assistant FDLE

Commissioner Daryl McLaughlin.

There are now 371 inmates on Florida's Death Row, but not every crime involves DNA evidence.