2015/03/02

The State Journal Register February 25, 2015: Innocence Project wants evidence better preserved

John Hanlon, executive director and legal director at the Illinois Innocence Project at the University of Illinois Springfield, remembers going to an Illinois county to look at evidence in a sexual assault case.

He was presented with a bag that contained not only the clothing of the victim but also the clothing of a second suspect in the case. Because of the contamination, he wasn't able to use DNA evidence in an effort to clear his client, who had been convicted of the crime.

"We would like to address the status of biological evidence after a conviction," Hanlon told The State Journal-Register editorial board Wednesday. Hanlon appeared before the board along with Larry Golden, founding director of the project.

Hanlon said Illinois law requires counties to keep any physical evidence "reasonably likely to contain forensic evidence" until after a convicted person's sentence has been served, but it says nothing about how the evidence should be maintained.

"Contamination occurs. Heat causes DNA evidence to degrade," he said. " You can't throw evidence up in the attic and expect it to be usable. We're interested in getting a bill in front of the legislature that would require that such evidence be properly preserved."He said the project has had only one case where DNA evidence hadn't degraded to some degree.

In some cases, the evidence still could be used, though. more