Good Government Spending

Congress finally passed a bill yesterday authorizing $1 billion to cover the costs for post-conviction DNA testing of inmates. It's shocking that there is a backlog of some 300,000 untested rape kits. Post-conviction DNA testing has exonerated 138 inmates so far and confirmed the guilt of many others. As I wrote in Reason in January 2000: "The federal and state governments should be eager to pay for DNA testing and analysis to be sure that no innocent person has been wrongfully imprisoned. After all, if the government isn't about rendering justice, what is it about?"