Policy

DOJ Won't Spend Money Slated for DNA Testing

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USA Today reports that the Justice Department hasn't spent the first nickel of the $8 million Congress allotted for the purpose of testing DNA samples in cases where an innocent person may have been convicted.

TalkLeft's Jeralyn Merritt comments:

I'm not surprised, given DOJ's opposition to the Innocence Protection Act all along. By the time the bill was passed, it was stripped of the most meaningful protections and turned into a victims' rights bill, even being renamed The Justice For All Act.

The National Institute for Justice, which administers the grants, claims Congress attached onerous rules to the grants that effectively make it impossible for the states to obtain them.