National Forensic DNA Study Report
Smith Alling Lane in partnership with Washington State University
In recent years forensic DNA evidence has been used by agencies and actors in the criminal justice system more and more frequently to both convict the guilty and exonerate the innocent. Cases that previously may have been unsolvable have been transformed into solvable cases where viable suspects can be identified and arrested or removed from suspect lists. While this new technology enhances the opportunity for the criminal justice system to “do justice” in more cases of suspected wrongdoing, it also creates an added need for law enforcement agencies to review old cases for potential biological evidence that should be sent to a crime laboratory for testing. Many policy makers are interested in discussing solutions to this problem of an added burden on law enforcement and crime laboratories, but they need to have a more complete understanding of the major dimensions of the problem – How big is the case backlog? How did it grow so large? What is the capacity of the evidence collection, storage, analysis and retrieval system to reduce that backlog and provide timely information for the criminal justice system?
This Report relied largely on a nation-wide mail assessment of local and state forensics laboratories and local law enforcement agencies, as well as extensive interviews of prosecutors, investigators and laboratory administrators to arrive at answers to the questions posed above. While it is generally acknowledged that there is likely a significant backlog of criminal cases that might benefit from DNA analysis, no effort had been made to quantify this number. This study arrives at estimates for the numbers of unsolved criminal cases in the U.S. which might benefit from DNA analysis, assesses both law enforcement and laboratory capacities for dealing with cases involving DNA, and identifies significant issues relating to the expansion of the use of DNA forensic analysis in criminal cases.