Statement on the DNA Match in the Innocence Case of Kirk Bloodsworth
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“On September 5th, Kirk Bloodsworth heard the news he had been waiting to hear for nearly 20 years. The state of Maryland finally charged someone for the rape and murder of young Dawn Hamilton. Kirk spent nine years in prison, two of them on death row, before DNA testing proved he could not have committed the crime. He became the first death row exoneration in this country.
While we share Kirk’s relief and joy at the news, we are troubled by a system that allows this to happen and too often relies on luck to get justice.
It took years for Kirk to get the DNA test that exonerated him, and another decade, and pressure from outside interest groups, to get the DNA evidence run through a database to see if it matched anyone in the system.
While this story has finally reached an important end for Kirk and the family of the victim, it demonstrates the need for federal legislation to guarantee the preservation and testing of DNA evidence. Stunningly, there are no national standards on the preservation of evidence, no mandate to test it, not even guaranteed access to it by those who claim to have been wrongfully convicted. As a result, states are destroying DNA and not testing evidence that they still have.
As Kirk’s story - and the two decades it took to get justice - proves, Congress needs to immediately pass legislation that ensures DNA evidence is preserved, that arbitrary and unfair limits are put on access to that evidence, and critically that everyone facing a death sentence has a qualified attorney.”
- Wayne Smith, President
The Justice Project
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The Justice Project [ http://www.thejusticeproject.org ] (TJP) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that addresses issues of social justice here and abroad. TJP’s Campaign for Criminal Justice Reform is a national initiative that addresses flaws in the American justice system.
