Bill would give prisoners DNA test to argue case

By Laura A. Bischoff

Dayton Daily News

COLUMBUS | The Ohio Senate will likely consider a bill next week to allow prisoners to get DNA testing done that may prove them innocent.

The bill passed unanimously Wednesday out of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, despite concerns — by the Ohio Public Defender Office, the Ohio Innocence Project, ACLU of Ohio, and Melinda Elkins, whose wrongly convicted husband was recently released through DNA evidence — that the bill should be stronger.

Under the previous law, which expired in October, two-thirds of the 307 inmates who applied for DNA testing were denied. The new bill, which would be permanent law, includes the same strict legal standard that led to many denials. Judges must rule that the DNA test would be "outcome determinative." That means no reasonable jury could convict once it considered the DNA test results.

Elkins said the standard is too stringent. She noted that her husband, who paid for his own testing, would not have qualified under that standard.

State Sen. David Goodman, R-New Albany, the bill sponsor, said the courts too narrowly interpreted the standard and he hopes to amend the bill to give judges more latitude in granting DNA tests.

The bill also includes clarification of another law that requires all felons and some misdemeanants to submit their DNA samples for a database. The 9th District Court of Appeals recently ruled DNA samples could be taken only from those convicted after the law took effect in May. The ruling jeopardized 66,000 DNA samples added to the database.

Goodman's bill clarifies that the state can collect samples even if the offense was committed before May.