Defendant right to DNA evidence not perpetual

[The following summary is provided in whole by NCVLI]

Dist. Attorney’s Office for the Third Jud. Dist. v. Osborne, 129 S. Ct. 2308 (June 18, 2009).

Years following his conviction for sexual assault and other crimes, respondent sought to test certain DNA materials through a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action, in which the victim has no independent rights. NCVLI joined the individual victim as amicus curiae in the United States Supreme Court, arguing that a convicted offender should not be permitted to circumvent victims’ rights by using a § 1983 action, instead of a habeas petition, to seek access to evidence post-conviction.

The Supreme Court recently issued its opinion in this case. Without resolving the issue of whether respondent’s suit was properly raised as a § 1983 action or whether he should have pursued the evidence through a writ of habeas corpus, the Court rejected his claim, and held that there is no federal substantive due process right to access DNA evidence post-conviction. Justice Roberts, delivering the opinion of the court, reasoned that the convicted have only limited liberty interest and the Brady right of pretrial discovery does not apply in this situation. Roberts noted that state legislatures are responsible for deciding post-conviction evidentiary procedures, and that respondent’s § 1983 suit was an attempt to sidestep the state process. Roberts cautioned that creating a constitutional right of access to DNA evidence post-conviction would burden the federal courts and raise too many questions that are best left to the states to answer. In his concurrence, Justice Alito stated that he would have held that respondent’s claim should have been brought in habeas. Underlying both the majority and concurring opinion was the theme of finality, federalism, and comity.

Justice Stevens, in one of the dissenting opinions, concluded that there is a constitutional right to access DNA evidence post-conviction. In reaching this conclusion, he stated that a state’s arbitrary refusal to allow a convict access to DNA evidence violates the basic principles of due process. Stevens further noted that crime victims, law enforcement, and society in general share a strong interest in identifying the actual perpetrators of crime and this interest overcomes the state’s interest in finality per se.

A PDF of this decision can also be found at www.ncvli.org, under “New & Noteworthy Cases.”