But it is only a first step. DNA evidence convicts the guilty and allows the innocent to go free. But today there is a 21-month delay in that happening. The emotional, physical and financial toll this takes on the judicial system is incalculable. There are a lot of problems money can't fix, but this is not one of them.
Money can buy the resources needed to eliminate the bottleneck.
All states require some or all of their convicted offenders to provide DNA samples to the state. In 1994 Congress enacted legislation that gave the FBI the authority to create a national database of these DNA samples. But there are also over 350,000 more samples that have been collected but have yet to be entered into this system by the states. We can and must do more to help local crime labs eliminate their DNA evidence backlog. Inadequate resources for state and local crime labs has led to a serious backlog in Alabama, so serious that one defendant in a capital murder case has suggested his constitutional right to a speedy trial was violated because of the delay in DNA testing.