Inmates Can Sue for DNA Tests, Judge Rules

Inmates who claim they were wrongfully convicted have a constitutional right to request DNA testing that might prove their innocence, a federal judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Albert V. Bryan Jr. issued the ruling Friday in the case of James Harvey, who was convicted of rape in 1990. Bryan did not order DNA testing for Harvey, 59, but said the 14th Amendment allows state prisoners to file federal civil rights lawsuits seeking DNA testing.

Although a district judge’s decision is not binding on other courts, Harvey’s lawsuit could become a national test case.

“DNA testing is becoming so accurate that any intelligent judge is going to say, ‘If there’s any doubt, you should have a right to test.’ If they can prove your guilt, why can’t you prove your non-guilt?” said John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, a conservative civil liberties group.

Post-conviction DNA testing has freed more than 70 prisoners, but a national debate is raging over how widely to make the tests available.

Harvey was convicted of a 1989 rape in which a woman was raped and beaten by two men. No DNA testing was done at the time, and the witness was unable to identify her attackers; the key evidence came from a man who said Harvey had confessed to him.