A broad bi-par­ti­san coali­tion of House and Senate law­mak­ers has intro­duced leg­is­la­tion to estab­lish a five-year, $1 bil­lion ini­tia­tive to ensure DNA test­ing for death row inmates who claim inno­cence. The ​“Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology Bill,” sup­port­ed by House Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner and Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, includes an Innocence Protection Act (IPA) pro­vi­sion aimed at reduc­ing the risk of wrong­ful con­vic­tions. Under this por­tion of the bill, all states apply­ing for IPA grant fund­ing must pro­vide death row inmates with access to DNA test­ing. (Associated Press, September 30, 2003) Additional fund­ing is avail­able to estab­lish train­ing ser­vices for lawyers assigned to cap­i­tal cas­es, to increase the max­i­mum amount of com­pen­sa­tion for fed­er­al inmates who were wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed, and to estab­lish in-state DNA Testing Programs, which are named in hon­or of Kirk Bloodsworth, the first death row inmate exon­er­at­ed by DNA evi­dence. Learn more about this bill. See Innocence.

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