In a recent speech in the U.S. Senate call­ing for the reau­tho­riza­tion of the Justice for All Act, Senator Patrick Leahy (D‑VT) spoke about the recent exon­er­a­tions of two men in North Carolina, cit­ing the impor­tance of DNA test­ing in their release from prison after 30 years: ​“The dozens of exon­er­a­tions made pos­si­ble by the Justice for All Act are tes­ta­ment enough to its val­ue,” Leahy said, ​“Henry Lee McCollum and Leon Brown are just the lat­est exam­ples. The injus­tice they sur­vived – and the fact that North Carolina near­ly exe­cut­ed an inno­cent man – should dis­pel any doubt that this leg­is­la­tion is urgent­ly need­ed.” The Act was first passed in 2004 and has pro­vid­ed impor­tant assis­tance to states and local gov­ern­ments in using DNA evi­dence to con­vict the guilty and exon­er­ate the inno­cent. The reau­tho­riza­tion is spon­sored by Leahy and Senator John Cornyn (R‑TX). The test­ing in the North Carolina case was fund­ed by the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Grant pro­gram, a por­tion of the Justice for All Act named for the first man exon­er­at­ed from death row by DNA evi­dence. Read Leahy’s statement below.

Sen. Leahy also spoke about the impor­tance of pre­vent­ing and cor­rect­ing wrong­ful con­vic­tions, say­ing, ​“Justice is the bedrock of our great coun­try. Our Founders under­stood that a government’s legit­i­ma­cy is erod­ed every time an inno­cent per­son is sent to prison for a crime he did not com­mit. They sought to pro­tect against this ero­sion by enshrin­ing fun­da­men­tal pro­tec­tions for the accused in our Bill of Rights. And while those pro­tec­tions are crit­i­cal, they are not fail-safe. We must do more. Lives are in the balance.”

Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy (D‑Vt.),
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee,
On Senate Consideration of the Justice for All Reauthorization Act of 2013
September 15, 2014

As a for­mer pros­e­cu­tor, I have great faith in our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem and in the men and women who have ded­i­cat­ed their lives to mak­ing it work. But I also know that our sys­tem is not per­fect. Sometimes mis­takes are made, and those mis­takes have cat­a­stroph­ic con­se­quences. They can mean an inno­cent per­son spends his or her life in prison, or worse, is exe­cut­ed. They mean a guilty per­son remains free – able to vic­tim­ize again. When mis­takes are made, lives are destroyed.

We would like to think that these mis­takes are few and far between, but the truth is they hap­pen all too often. Just this month, two inno­cent men in North Carolina were exon­er­at­ed after serv­ing 30 years behind bars for a hor­ri­ble crime they did not com­mit. One of those men had been sen­tenced to death.

Henry Lee McCollum and his half-broth­er Leon Brown were teenagers when they were arrest­ed in 1983 for the heinous rape and mur­der of an 11-year old girl. After being inter­ro­gat­ed for hours, these two men­tal­ly dis­abled teens gave false con­fes­sions and were ulti­mate­ly con­vict­ed of a crime they did not com­mit. While these inno­cent men sat behind bars, the unthink­able hap­pened — the real offend­er went on to rape and mur­der anoth­er young girl.

These men have lost so much. They were not there when their moth­er or grand­moth­er died. They have nev­er mar­ried or had chil­dren. Mr. McCollum had to be placed in iso­la­tion every time anoth­er inmate was tak­en to the exe­cu­tion cham­ber to keep him from harm­ing him­self in his dis­tress. It was only this year when a cig­a­rette butt left at the crime scene was final­ly test­ed for DNA that their names were cleared and the real per­pe­tra­tor iden­ti­fied.

That crit­i­cal DNA test­ing was made pos­si­ble by the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Grant pro­gram, a part of the Innocence Protection Act that I authored more than 14 years ago and which President Bush signed into law as part of the Justice for All Act of 2004. That pro­gram was named after a man whom I now call my friend, Kirk Bloodsworth. Kirk was a young man just out of the Marines, when he was arrest­ed, con­vict­ed, and sen­tenced to death for a heinous crime that he did not com­mit. He was the first per­son on death row to be exon­er­at­ed by DNA evi­dence.

Unfortunately, hun­dreds of oth­ers have gone through the same hell Kirk lived. Well over 300 Americans have been exon­er­at­ed using DNA test­ing. How many more inno­cent Americans have to suf­fer before we act? The U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., announced last Thursday that he will launch a con­vic­tion integri­ty unit fol­low­ing five recent exon­er­a­tions. Similar pro­grams exist in Dallas, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Jose and Detroit. This under­scores the fact that mis­takes hap­pen all too often. Excoriated

We are just begin­ning to under­stand the scope of the sys­temic errors com­mit­ted by hair and fiber ana­lysts at the FBI crime lab in the 1980s and 1990s. Those errors have called into ques­tion the con­vic­tions of 2,600 defen­dants, includ­ing 45 on death row. In a sep­a­rate inquiry involv­ing the same FBI unit, more than 60 death row con­vic­tions were poten­tial­ly taint­ed by agent mis­con­duct. According to the Justice Department’s Inspector General, three of those defen­dants were exe­cut­ed before their attor­neys were noti­fied. One of them would not have been eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty with­out the FBI’s flawed work. That should shock our con­science. It is unac­cept­able. We may have exe­cut­ed an inno­cent man. I will hold the FBI account­able and demand they take the nec­es­sary steps to ensure that such a sys­temic fail­ure nev­er occurs again. I know Senator Grassley and oth­ers share my out­rage at this sit­u­a­tion.

It is against the back­drop of these shock­ing cas­es that I come to the floor today and urge the Senate to take swift action. We must reau­tho­rize the Justice for All Act, which includes the post-con­vic­tion DNA test­ing pro­gram that is a life­line to the wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed.

There is noth­ing par­ti­san or polit­i­cal about ensur­ing that we have the right per­son behind bars. That is why I part­nered with Senator Cornyn to intro­duce this leg­is­la­tion. That is also why the Justice for All Act has the sup­port of the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Grassley, and the Minority Leader, Senator McConnell.

Justice is the bedrock of our great coun­try. Our Founders under­stood that a government’s legit­i­ma­cy is erod­ed every time an inno­cent per­son is sent to prison for a crime he did not com­mit. They sought to pro­tect against this ero­sion by enshrin­ing fun­da­men­tal pro­tec­tions for the accused in our Bill of Rights. And while those pro­tec­tions are crit­i­cal, they are not fail-safe. We must do more. Lives are in the bal­ance.

The dozens of exon­er­a­tions made pos­si­ble by the Justice for All Act are tes­ta­ment enough to its val­ue. Henry Lee McCollum and Leon Brown are just the lat­est exam­ples. The injus­tice they sur­vived – and the fact that North Carolina near­ly exe­cut­ed an inno­cent man –should dis­pel any doubt that this leg­is­la­tion is urgent­ly need­ed. It is time for the Senate to pass the Justice for All Reauthorization Act.

I will soon seek unan­i­mous con­sent to pass this legislation.

(P. Leahy, ​“On Senate Consideration of the Justice for All Reauthorization Act of 2013,” September 15, 2014). See Innocence and Recent Legislation.

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