Justice For All Act of 2004
JUSTICE FOR ALL ACT OF 2004 -- (House of Representatives - October 06, 2004)
Mr. SENSENBRENNER. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 823, I call up the bill (H.R. 5107), to protect crime victims' rights, to eliminate the substantial backlog of DNA samples collected from crime scenes and convicted offenders, to improve and expand the DNA testing capacity of Federal, State, and local crime laboratories, to increase research and development of new DNA testing technologies, to develop new training programs regarding the collection and use of DNA evidence, to provide post-conviction testing of DNA evidence to exonerate the innocent, to improve the performance of counsel in State capital cases, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.
I rise in support of the Advancing Justice Through DNA Act. Although the science of DNA analysis has vastly improved our ability to identify the guilty and to exonerate the innocent, neither our laws nor the resources we have made available have allowed our criminal justice system to make full use of that technology. This legislation would go a long way toward correcting that terrible gap.
I want to congratulate, in particular, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Delahunt) who introduced the Innocence Protection Act several years ago and has worked tirelessly on this matter ever since. We all owe him a great debt of gratitude. No one whose innocence can be proved by DNA evidence should languish in prison because of procedural or financial obstacles to the use of that DNA evidence, and no one whose guilt can be proved by DNA evidence should remain unconvicted and free to menace others because of procedural or financial obstacles to the use of that DNA evidence.
It is imperative, in connection with one of the titles of this bill, that we eliminate the shameful backlog of untested rape kits, and this bill will go a long way towards that goal. I have worked with NOW, RAINN and Lifetime Television to raise awareness of this issue and to build consensus for decisive action. Together, we have pushed, prodded and demanded that Federal funding be provided to test these kits quickly. Today, we are one step closer to that goal.
I am pleased that this bill includes a provision very similar to the Rape Kit DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act, which I introduced in March of 2002. That legislation would have provided $250 million to eliminate the rape kit backlog. I am also pleased that, like my bill and like the bill introduced by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Weiner) and the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney), this legislation adds funding specifically for rape kits.
But we are not there yet. These programs still need to be funded, and I am hopeful that we will not simply authorize funding for these programs, as this bill does and as I hope the Senate will go along with, but I am hopeful that we will also actually appropriate the money we are today acknowledging is needed to do the job right.
This issue is too important to ignore. Police departments must have the resources they need to solve crimes and put criminals behind bars.
This legislation represents a serious effort to combat crime, to locate and apprehend rapists, to use powerful evidence to put them in prison, and in the larger sense, it also represents a serious effort to take out of prison people who do not belong there in light of the capability of DNA evidence to prove their innocence.
We have adopted similar legislation before. I urge its adoption now, and I hope the Senate will go along.
I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT