Court: No inmate right to DNA testing

WASHINGTON, June 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Thursday along ideological lines an inmate has no automatic right to get access to DNA testing to prove innocence.

Key swing vote Justice Anthony Kennedy joined the court's four conservatives in an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts.

The case involves Alaska inmate William Osborne, imprisoned 15 years ago for rape. Later, he filed suit under federal civil rights law to get access to the evidence used against him and to subject it at his own expense to DNA analysis.

The federal appeals court based in San Francisco ruled Osborne had a limited constitutional right to new DNA testing not available at trial.

But Roberts said in his opinion Osborne was asking for "the recognition of a freestanding and far-reaching constitutional right of access to this new type of evidence."

Roberts said the inmate had no "constitutional right" to obtain post-conviction access to the state's evidence for DNA testing. He conceded DNA testing has the "unparalleled ability" to prove innocence or guilt, but that doesn't mean every criminal conviction based on biological evidence "is suddenly in doubt."

The chief justice said state legislatures were the proper venues for addressing access to evidence for post-conviction DNA testing. He pointed out Alaska currently has no such law.

(DA's Office for the Third District vs. Osborne, No. 08-7)