Panel recommends easier DNA testing, more lab experts

AUSTIN -- Texas should make it easier for judges to order post-conviction DNA testing, a criminal justice panel appointed by Gov. Rick Perry recommended Tuesday.

Perry created the panel in March 2005 to study and make recommendations for a legal system trying to keep up with forensic science advances, developing legal issues and laws that may be needed to better protect victims and the accused.

The panel concentrated in four areas: forensics, determining innocence, sex offenders and technology.

"These recommendations provide a framework that will give Texans greater confidence in a justice system designed to protect all," Perry said.

Some of the changes, such as making it easier for judges to order post-conviction DNA testing, require legislative action, said Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt. Many judges have been reluctant to order DNA testing without specific authority to do so, the panel reported.

"Hopefully these recommendations are just the first step toward meaningful action," said Sen. Rodney Ellis, a Houston Democrat who served on the panel.

Other issues involve state spending, such as boosting salaries for crime lab scientists and $2.9 million to hire 36 more. The panel also recommended the state pay for testing at private labs to avoid a backlog of cases at state labs.

Other recommendations include:

_Seek grant funding from the Governor's Criminal Justice Division to help innocence projects at the state's four public law schools.

_Use global positioning satellite surveillance of an estimated 230 high-level registered sex offenders with child victims for at least three years, and for life in some cases, at an estimated cost of $756,000 in the first year.

_Spend about $9.5 million over the next two years to expand the state attorney general's sex offender enforcement unit.

The panel also recommended further study on using state money for public defenders to improve legal representation for capital murder defendants, boost compensation for the wrongly convicted and review police interrogation techniques.