Recommendations for Defense Counsel

When a request for postconviction DNA testing is received, recommendations for defense counsel include the following: 

• Perform extensive screening to determine if the case is suited to DNA testing.
• If a case is determined to warrant DNA testing, conduct an extensive search for evidence, consulting with prosecutors throughout the search.
• Do not contact the victim. It is up to the prosecutor's office, through its victim services agency, to determine if it is appropriate to inform the victim of testing.

Defense counsel should appreciate that convictions are rarely reopened and that a noncontentious attitude may expedite the location of needed biological samples and accelerate the testing process that is an innocent client's best hope for relief.

On the other hand, defense counsel must also recognize and inform their clients that truth may have a price and that inculpatory results will have to be disclosed to the prosecution. Convicted felons are not entitled to testing without risking the consequences of false claims of innocence.

See detailed recommndations for defense counsel.

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Some or all of the content on this page was excerpted from the Special Report Postconviction DNA Testing: Recommendations for Handling Requests, developed under an award from the Office of Justice Programs' National Institute of Justice. See award product disclaimer.