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The issue of whether the Constitution provides a sentenced prisoner a right to DNA testing independent of a state postconviction statute was largely but not entirely resolved in DA's Office for the Third Judicial Dist. v. Osborne, 129 S. Ct. 2308 (U.S. 2009). Although federal law and the law of 46 states provide for at least some access to postconviction DNA testing, Alaska did not. In Osborne, the Court declined to hold that an Alaskan sentenced inmate had a constitutional right to postconviction testing enforceable, under civil rights laws as a due process claim, because, as the Court majority concluded, Alaska's law provided sufficient procedures for presenting "new" evidence to satisfy due process concerns, procedures the majority contended that Osborne had not invoked.
Additional Online Courses
- What Every First Responding Officer Should Know About DNA Evidence
- Collecting DNA Evidence at Property Crime Scenes
- DNA – A Prosecutor’s Practice Notebook
- Crime Scene and DNA Basics
- Laboratory Safety Programs
- DNA Amplification
- Population Genetics and Statistics
- Non-STR DNA Markers: SNPs, Y-STRs, LCN and mtDNA
- Firearms Examiner Training
- Forensic DNA Education for Law Enforcement Decisionmakers
- What Every Investigator and Evidence Technician Should Know About DNA Evidence
- Principles of Forensic DNA for Officers of the Court
- Law 101: Legal Guide for the Forensic Expert
- Laboratory Orientation and Testing of Body Fluids and Tissues
- DNA Extraction and Quantitation
- STR Data Analysis and Interpretation
- Communication Skills, Report Writing, and Courtroom Testimony
- Español for Law Enforcement
- Amplified DNA Product Separation for Forensic Analysts