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2023 SESSION

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HB 1584 Biological evidence; storage, preservation, and retention of evidence in felony cases.

Introduced by: Richard C. "Rip" Sullivan, Jr. | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:

Storage, preservation, and retention of biological evidence in felony cases. Requires any governmental entity that possesses any biological evidence, defined in the bill, collected or obtained during an investigation of a felony case to ensure the storage, preservation, and retention of such biological evidence or representative samples for such period of time that (i) the defendant remains incarcerated or under any registration or supervision requirement in connection with the felony conviction or (ii) until the expiration of the statute of limitations for the alleged offense has lapsed in such case where a felony remains unsolved or no charges have been filed. The bill requires biological evidence to be preserved in a condition that is suitable for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing and analysis, and such evidence shall be made available for DNA testing.

The bill requires the court, upon motion by the defendant, to order the Department of Forensic Science to submit an inventory of the biological evidence that has been preserved in the connection with the defendant's case, a copy of which shall be provided to the defendant. The bill requires the chief evidence custodian of a governmental entity to submit an affidavit if such government entity cannot locate biological evidence that it is required to preserve, under penalty of perjury, that describes the biological evidence that cannot be located and details the efforts made to locate such evidence.

The bill provides remedies the court may order if it finds that biological evidence has not been properly preserved, including (i) granting a new trial; (ii) dismissing the charges; (iii) reducing the sentence; (iv) vacating the defendant's conviction; or (v) entering a finding that a presumption exists that the evidence would have been exculpatory to the defendant because the biological evidence has not been preserved properly.


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