# Why not test all prisoners DNA evidence? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 1, 2005, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-test-all-prisoners-dna-evidence/315179 "2005-08-01T18:21:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RyJae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@RyJae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RyJae)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-test-all-prisoners-dna-evidence/315179/1 "2005-08-01T18:21:06Z")
After reading this [article](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,164396,00.html) and thinking just how badly that would suck. And realizing that a few of these happen every year, why wouldn’t the government mandate testing on all cases that happened prior to DNA being used? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-test-all-prisoners-dna-evidence/315179/2 "2005-08-01T18:51:09Z")
Not being privy to the inner workings of the federal and various state governments, I can only assume that it’s because of the cost involved. The government isn’t going to re-open thousands of cases it considers solved, at thousands of dollars per case, if it doesn’t have to. ---
**Author:** ![RyJae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@RyJae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RyJae)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-test-all-prisoners-dna-evidence/315179/3 "2005-08-01T19:04:27Z")
How much does a DNA test cost? And wouldn’t that cost be cheaper then the millions paid in settlements after cases such as I linked to in the OP? I find cost as a reason scary… ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-test-all-prisoners-dna-evidence/315179/4 "2005-08-01T19:53:19Z")
> [@LostGoals](#): > > How much does a DNA test cost? One site (to which I won’t link since it’s commercial) charges $450 plus $25 per person “collection fee.” I was including ancillary costs in with my “thousands of dollars.” > [@LostGoals](#): > > And wouldn’t that cost be cheaper then the millions paid in settlements after cases such as I linked to in the OP? But are people wrongly convicted, absent prosecutorial misconduct, necessarily entitled to compensation? I don’t think they are. ---
**Author:** ![RyJae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@RyJae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RyJae)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-test-all-prisoners-dna-evidence/315179/5 "2005-08-01T20:14:00Z")
Now another question based on your answer. Don’t those wrongly convicted get at least compensation for lost wages? Even if there was no intentional misconduct? Couldn’t they sue for something, anything and win? If thats factual that they do not get any compensation, I am depressed. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-test-all-prisoners-dna-evidence/315179/6 "2005-08-01T20:32:54Z")
> [@LostGoals](#): > > After reading this [article](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,164396,00.html) and thinking just how badly that would suck. And realizing that a few of these happen every year, why wouldn’t the government mandate testing on all cases that happened prior to DNA being used? Well, first of all, think of the research involved. It’s not likely that the government has a bunch of files labeled “Case decided solely on the basis of blood/semen evidence and shaky eye witness corroboration.” A lot of the evidence may have degraded, been contaminated, or been lost over time. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-test-all-prisoners-dna-evidence/315179/7 "2005-08-01T21:19:05Z")
> [@LostGoals](#): > > Now another question based on your answer. > Don’t those wrongly convicted get at least compensation for lost wages? Why should they? They were convicted from evidence ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. In the OP’s case the article indicates that the police did not play fair. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-test-all-prisoners-dna-evidence/315179/8 "2005-08-01T21:26:29Z")
> [@LostGoals](#): > > Don’t those wrongly convicted get at least compensation for lost wages? Even if there was no intentional misconduct? Couldn’t they sue for something, anything and win? Well, upon a quick Google I find there is an actual magazine devoted to the wrongly convicted called _Justice: Denied_. This [article](http://www.justicedenied.org/compensate.htm) talks about compensation for the wrongly convicted. I can’t find a date associated with the article but it appears from other links that it might be from 2004. As of the writing of the article, 14 states, DC and the feds had compensation programs of some sort, which allowed both for compensation and for the wrongly convicted to recover under tort claims such as false imprisonment, defamation, and so on. I assume that a tort claim would require some sort of official misconduct but I really don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![RyJae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@RyJae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RyJae)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-test-all-prisoners-dna-evidence/315179/9 "2005-08-01T21:28:10Z")
Joe Everyman walks everyday in the park in 1979, one day a woman turns up sexually assaulted and murdered, they find a pair of underwear the same kind as Joe Everyman wears at the scene, three witnesses ID Joe Everyman as being at the park around the same time frame. Joe Everyman has some scratches from the work he does (Landscaping). He has no alibi as he lives alone. So the police and the prosecutor have there man, fast forward 20 years he is still in prison based on the best of technology at the time. And with the help of one of these innocence projects they get those undies and find that the semen on them does not match him! So there was no “deceit” your saying the law does not award any compensation? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-test-all-prisoners-dna-evidence/315179/10 "2005-08-01T21:32:00Z")
**LostGoals** , in your scenario there’s no actual evidence. Only circumstantial evidence. So he shouldn’t have been convicted in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-test-all-prisoners-dna-evidence/315179/11 "2005-08-01T21:47:16Z")
I would assume that there isn’t DNA evidence for many, or even most cases, that if there is, it might not be sufficient to overturn a conviction (that can be based on many other evidences), and even if they were, the DNA evidences probably had been destroyed since the conviction in many cases. Concerning indemnization of wrongfully convicted people in the USA, I remember a thread were this question was adressed, and that mentionned that in some states, no compensentation are awarded, even for people who spend many years behind bars (the thread was related to such a case, IIRC). ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-test-all-prisoners-dna-evidence/315179/12 "2005-08-01T22:01:38Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > **LostGoals** , in your scenario there’s no actual evidence. Only circumstantial evidence. So he shouldn’t have been convicted in the first place. IANAL, but I do not believe this is a true statement of the law. It is my understanding that people are routinely convicted solely with circumstantial evidence. The requirement for a conviction is that a court must be convinced that a defendant is guilty beyond reasonable doubt, and this may well be due solely to circumstantial evidence. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-test-all-prisoners-dna-evidence/315179/13 "2005-08-02T00:55:22Z")
> [@LostGoals](#): > > After reading this [article](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,164396,00.html) and thinking just how badly that would suck. And realizing that a few of these happen every year, why wouldn’t the government mandate testing on all cases that happened prior to DNA being used? Once someone has been convicted, their guilt is considered as being proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The case is closed, dealt with, finished. The government does not see any purpose in gathering new evidence in a closed case. As far as they are concerned, they already have the right man, and see no reason for further analysis. ---
**Author:** ![RyJae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@RyJae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RyJae)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-test-all-prisoners-dna-evidence/315179/14 "2005-08-02T01:04:00Z")
I cannot fathom anyone not wanting to know the truth, even prosecutors. But if [this](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4169313.stm) lie detector becomes reality would the government then allow all those who proclaim innocence to at least give that a go? I guess I got my factual answer, so by rights this is done, it just boggles my mind that we wouldn’t spare a drop in the bucket money wise on making sure the wrong person is not behind bars! ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-test-all-prisoners-dna-evidence/315179/15 "2005-08-02T03:04:43Z")
> [@LostGoals](#): > > I cannot fathom anyone not wanting to know the truth, even prosecutors. But prosecutors believe they know the truth. A prosecutor as an officer of the court must have a good faith basis for the prosecution. If the prosecutor doesn’t believe in the guilt of the accused then the prosecutor is obliged not to prosecute. > [@LostGoals](#): > > But if [this](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4169313.stm) lie detector becomes reality would the government then allow all those who proclaim innocence to at least give that a go? Current polygraph results are not admissible in US courts (the exception being IIRC that some courts will admit them if both sides stipulate to accept the results before the test is administered but it’s been a few years since I studied that so I could be wrong). There’s also a legal standard that must be met before evidence based on scientific techniques can be admitted (which I won’t try to explain since AFAIK it still varies from state to state despite a 1993 Supreme Court decision). It’s unlikely that even were this brainwave reader available tomorow that any US court would admit its results as evidence for quite some time. > [@LostGoals](#): > > I guess I got my factual answer, so by rights this is done, it just boggles my mind that we wouldn’t spare a drop in the bucket money wise on making sure the wrong person is not behind bars! Not to stray too far into GD territory, but the money’s already been spent by the state in prosecuting the case. The job of the prosecution is to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. It’s not the prosecution’s job to go back after having done that and do it again.