Oregon, which was once among the hardest states for inmates to secure post-conviction DNA testing, has passed a new statute easing the limitations, effective the first day of 2020. The new statute, Senate Bill 321, grants post-conviction DNA testing to an inmate that can prove they would not have been prosecuted or convicted previously had culpatory results been available at the time.
Senate Bill 321 improves upon a previous 2015 version, as well as the original 2001 version that first made post-conviction DNA testing available in the state.
Proposed by the Oregon Innocence Project (OIP), the 2015 bill (House Bill 3206) removed the requirement for a prisoner to name the specific piece of evidence they wanted tested. However, the version still had highly problematic language leftover from 2001. Specifically, the 2015 version required petitioners to “assure” that DNA evidence would prove their innocent before testing could be granted. Since 2001, very few people were granted testing, and not one inmate had been granted release.
“You were sort of required to prove innocence to be able to prove your innocence through testing, which didn’t make much sense,” said Brittney Plesser, staff attorney at OIP. “The new standard is much broader and makes sense as a pre-testing standard.”
Beyond testing standards, there are other changes to the law within Senate Bill 321. A new OIP-proposed discovery provision allows an inmate’s council to easily receive all information applicable to the case, rather than having to consult prior litigation on a one-by-one basis. Another change added explicit authority for the court to order testing results be place in DNA databases.
“The way that the law was written in 2015, there was nothing giving the court that authority, and courts could be gun-shy to rule a lab has to do something,” said Plesser. “This change makes it so once the testing is done, if we get a DNA profile that doesn’t match our client, then the profile will be submitted to CODIS and hopefully identify the true perpetrator.”
Plesser said OIP currently has a case pending in the court of appeals filed under the 2015 statute that may benefit from this new law, but only time will tell. While OIP has other cases on its docket that may benefit from this update, Plesser said there are other ways—quicker ways—to get post-conviction testing. That was the last amendment added to the statute in fact— Senate Bill 321 is not the only avenue to get access to DNA testing after conviction.
“The statute is meant to help people who are claiming innocence and do not have any other avenue available to them, but it can make the process much longer,” Plesser explained. “One thing we added to the statute is that people who are in a post-conviction trial phase can potentially get testing through that, rather than having to stay that case and file something under [Senate Bill 321], which would take more time.”