SESSIONS FIGHTS BILL TO SPEED UP DNA TESTS

U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions is opposing parts of a bill that would give $1.2
billion to forensic labs to process evidence that could free people wrongly
convicted of crimes.

Sessions, R-Alabama, says the bill gives too much weight to DNA evidence
and provides no help for state forensics labs backlogged on other kinds of
work, such as drug tests. Sessions also disagrees with a section that would
provide money to find qualified attorneys to work on DNA ap peals.

"This bill would take $100 million in federal taxpayer funds and give it to
anti-death penalty groups for the defense of murderers and terrorists,"
Sessions said in a statement.

The DNA legislation passed the House 357 to 67 last year. Supporters of the
bill say they have strong bipartisan support in the Senate, but they fear
that delays by Sessions and two other senators in the Judiciary Committee
are dimming the bill's chances this session.

Sessions' criticism comes on the heels of three cases in less than a month
in which DNA freed men wrongly convicted of rape in southern states.

The men spent a combined 61 years in prison for crimes they did not commit.

"In recent years, as more and more people have been exonerated from Death
Row through DNA evidence, a solid consensus has emerged that if we're going
to have a death penalty system some of the flaws that have become readily
apparent need to be ad dressed," said David Carle, spokesman for Sen.
Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, a sponsor of the bill.

The bill includes provisions to authorize $755 million toward conducting
DNA testing on the backlog of more than 300,000 rape kits and other crime
scene evidence.

It also would provide $500 million in grants to help make federal, state
and local crime laboratories more efficient in conducting DNA analysis.
Another section would allow for $25 million over five years to help states
pay the costs of post-conviction DNA testing.

In 2000, Sessions led an effort to get more federal funding for forensics
labs. Now he's raising concerns that too much focus is on DNA and not on
other work labs do.

"While I strongly support federal help for forensic science, this bill
earmarks all the money for DNA. Only 5 per cent of scientific analyses are
for DNA. Some states have no DNA backlog. This is a political bill that
should be killed as dead as a door nail," Sessions said.

Alabama's DNA backlog has been reduced over the last five months, but the
director of the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences said the state
still has about 2,000 cases to be worked.

Information from: The Birmingham News