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| Va. Ends Genetic Evidence Limit |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 05/14/2001 |
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Gov. Jim Gilmore signed legislation recently eliminating Virginia's strict deadline for inmates to produce new genetic evidence of their innocence. The previous limit, giving inmates only 21 days after sentencing to bring up new evidence, was the nation's most restrictive. The new law contains no limit on the time required to produce new DNA evidence. Gilmore, a Republican who took office in 1998, had wanted inmates to have three years after sentencing to bring up new evidence on genetic testing. Death row inmates would also have had a year after state appeals are exhausted to appeal. But the General Assembly overwhelmingly rejected the idea of setting specific deadlines, rejecting Gilmore's amendments. Gilmore signed the bill 'with reservations,' spokesman Reid Boatright said. The measure had the backing of a legislative coalition of death penalty opponents and supporters who said that removing restrictions on testing would give the public more confidence that capital punishment was being administered justly. The Legislature acted after several high-profile cases in which DNA analysis exonerated condemned inmates, including former Virginia death row inmate Earl Washington Jr. Washington, who was freed in February, spent 9 1/2 years on death row for a 1982 slaying that DNA evidence later showed he didn't commit. The sophisticated DNA testing was not available in the early 1980s. Legislators turned down another amendment by Gilmore that would have allowed only people who had pleaded innocent to petition for new tests, and would have required petitioners to show that the perpetrator's identity was contested during the trial. Critics of that measure argued that some wrongly accused people plead guilty to reduced charges to avoid a long prison sentence, and they especially deserved the protections of DNA testing. |
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