Notify the Defense and Victim of Decision

If the prosecutor decides, on his or her own, to order testing and the testing will consume remaining samples, the prosecutor should notify the defense. If the prosecutor decides not to object to defense testing, the defense should be notified that the prosecution will cooperate, provided the defense agrees that the results will be open, reported to both sides, and available for future use by either side. The prosecution should also recommend that the testing be conducted either by an accredited laboratory or a laboratory that meets the criteria for accreditation (see Quality Assurance Standards for forensic DNA testing), that testing be conducted using techniques currently used for criminal identification databanking (such as the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS)), and that the results be released to the State for such databanking purposes.

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