Supreme Court to Review DNA Case
By DAVID STOUT
Published: November 3, 2008
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review an Alaska rape case to determine whether a defendant has a constitutional right to have tests conducted on genetic evidence found at a crime scene.
The justices took the case involving William G. Osborne, who was convicted in state court in March 1994 of kidnapping, assault and sexual assault and sentenced to 26 years in prison, with five years suspended. Jurors concluded that he was one of two men who drove a prostitute to a remote area near the Anchorage airport in March 1993, beat her with an ax handle and shot her after forcing her to perform sex acts, then partly covered her with snow as she lay still on the ground.
The prostitute survived and implicated Mr. Osborne, as did DNA tests performed on hair and semen evidence. A second man, who identified Mr. Osborne as having been with him the night of the assault, was also convicted.
Mr. Osborne’s lawyers argue that over the years DNA testing techniques have become far more precise than they were at the time of the crime, and that new tests could establish the defendant’s innocence. Moreover, they argue, the new tests would be paid for by the defendant, so the State of Alaska has nothing to lose by permitting them.
Forty-four states and the federal government have laws that give convicts access to DNA testing of evidence, according to Mr. Osborne’s lawyers, but Alaska is among the six states that do not.
The case that the justices accepted is an appeal by the state of Alaska of an opinion by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. A three-judge panel of that court ruled in April that Mr. Osborne should be allowed to obtain new DNA tests.
The Ninth Circuit judges acknowledged that Mr. Osborne ostensibly admitted his guilt to the parole authorities in 2004, but they said the defendant might have done so only because he saw an admission as his quickest way out of prison.
If the new testing shows that Mr. Osborne was indeed guilty, prosecutors should be pleased, the Ninth Circuit said. And if the testing points to his innocence, prosecutors should still be pleased, because the state’s paramount interests are in “seeking justice, not obtaining convictions at all costs,” and the tests will yield better evidence to catch and convict “the real perpetrator.”
Barry Scheck, the co-director of the Innocence Project, which assists prisoners who can be cleared through DNA testing, said: “Why would anyone be afraid to learn the truth in this case? There is no rational reason to deny DNA testing that could prove innocence or confirm guilt.”
The Innocence Project says that 223 prisoners have been exonerated through DNA testing since 1989.
Posted Friday, November 14, 2008
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