In March, a Mississippi law went into effect requiring DNA evidence from criminal cases to be preserved. However, neither crime labs nor agencies have the space to store the evidence. While creating a larger location to keep the evidence may be possible in the future, currently people handling DNA are panicked over what to do with it all.

Will McIntosh, staff attorney for the Mississippi Innocence Project, said he can understand law enforcement’s concern about DNA or other biological evidence piling up and becoming unmanageable, but he said it shouldn’t be a worry because the law allows for a small sample to be kept instead of an entire item.

The preservation of DNA evidence is very important to the Innocence Project of Florida (as well as other Innocence Projects, as illustrated in the article). Often when trying to gather evidence for old cases to be DNA tested, we find that the agencies that should have the evidence had previously destroyed or misplaced it. In Florida, a 2006 revision to the Florida Statutes Section 925.11 states:

In a case in which the death penalty is imposed, the evidence shall be maintained for 60 days after execution of the sentence. In all other cases, a governmental entity may dispose of the physical evidence if the term of the sentence imposed in the case has expired and no other provision of law or rule requires that the physical evidence be preserved or retained.

That is, in non-death penalty cases the evidence must be stored until the convicted person reaches the end of their prison sentence. However, prior to this law evidence was destroyed systematically by law enforcement (i.e. every 10 years) or as a result of court orders instructing them to do so. Where a majority of the post-conviction cases requesting DNA testing are over a decade old, you can see our dilemma.

Another important and helpful part of the new Mississippi law is that destruction of evidence must be approved by all parties involved in the case. If an inmate who claims innocence is seeking retrial he has some power in making sure the evidence is maintained.

Especially for the benefit of old cases being reopened, it is important that DNA evidence is not only preserved for a long period of time but that it be stored properly to prevent contamination. All crime labs should expand their storage capability and techniques.

To learn more about IPF’s issues in relation to DNA storage, check out our Evidence Preservation page.

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