CovOps
Location : Ether-Sphere Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator Humor : Über Serious
| Subject: Convicts Don't Have Right to Test DNA: Immoral Supreme Court Fri Jun 19, 2009 12:16 am | |
| The Supreme Court said today that convicts have no constitutional right to test DNA evidence in hopes of proving their innocence long after they were found guilty of a crime. The court ruled5-4 , with the conservative justices in the majority, against William Osborne, an Alaska man convicted in a brutal attack on a prostitute 16 years ago. But the decision may have limited impact because the federal government and 47 states already have laws that allow convicts some access to genetic evidence.
"To suddenly constitutionalize this area would short-circuit what looks to be a prompt and considered legislative response," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. But Justice John Paul Stevens said in dissent that a simple test would settle the matter. "The court today blesses the state's arbitrary denial of the evidence Osborne seeks," Stevens said. Source: Associated Press _________________ Anarcho-Capitalist, AnCaps Forum, Ancapolis, OZschwitz Contraband “The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime.”-- Max Stirner "Remember: Evil exists because good men don't kill the government officials committing it." -- Kurt Hofmann |
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