A new Texas law requir­ing DNA test­ing of all bio­log­i­cal evi­dence pri­or to seek­ing the death penal­ty could reduce the num­ber of cap­i­tal cas­es. District Attorney Billy Byrd of Upshur County not­ed, ​“Essentially, every piece of evi­dence will have to be test­ed,” he said, which could delay tri­als more than a year. ​“Certainly, that will be the case. We will have to deal with cer­tain delays and longer waits,” he added, not­ing it is not uncom­mon for DNA evi­dence to take more than a year to be processed. Nevertheless, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (a like­ly Republican can­di­date for gov­er­nor) is a strong sup­port­er of the law, as is Senator Rodney Ellis, Democrat of Houston, who intro­duced the bill. Abbott believes the law will even­tu­al­ly save the state time and resources, because the nec­es­sary test­ing will be done upfront. 

The law goes into effect on September 1. DNA test­ing has exon­er­at­ed 49 defen­dants in Texas (pri­mar­i­ly in non-capital cases).

(S. Thomas, ​“Law could curb death penal­ty cas­es in Texas,” Longview News Journal, August 22, 2013; B. Grissom, ​“Some Worry Over a Law to Increase DNA Testing,” Texas Tribune, Aug. 17, 2013). See Innocence and Recent Legislation.

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