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House Bill 681 |
House Author: Hochberg et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-07 |
Senate Sponsor: Duncan |
House Bill 681 amends provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure relating to postconviction forensic testing. The bill adds forensic testing, other than certain DNA testing, to the list of items a court may order to resolve controverted, previously unresolved facts that are material to the legality of the confinement of an applicant for a writ of habeas corpus. The bill sets out circumstances under which the state pays for the testing and under which the applicant pays for the testing. In a case in which a convicted person has requested forensic DNA testing, House Bill 681 establishes a deadline for the appointment of counsel for an indigent or presumably indigent convict and for a response from the prosecutor to the request for forensic DNA testing. The bill broadens circumstances under which the court may order that forensic DNA testing be conducted in a laboratory other than a Department of Public Safety laboratory to include at the request of the convicted person, regardless of whether the other parties agree, and requires the state to pay for such testing if good cause is shown.