Monday, May 12, 2008

Virginia's massive, unprecedented review of DNA evidence that could free wrongly convicted people has paused while the state seeks a $4.5 million federal grant to go on.

The state crime lab has already spent the $1.4 million that then-Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) authorized more than two years ago for the review. Warner ordered it after testing of DNA retained by a former state forensic analyst cleared two men convicted of rape.

The project won't end, lab director Peter M. Marone said in an interview last week. If federal funds don't come, the state will provide the money, he said, echoing public comments from the office of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D).

"We're just trying to make sure we'll expend federal grant money rather than state money," he said. Marone said he is optimistic that the Justice Department's National Institute of Justice will authorize the grant under a program that funds post-conviction DNA testing.

Five convicted felons have been exonerated in Virginia through DNA testing in recent years. No one has been cleared by the Warner-ordered review, in which state lab workers have gone through 534,000 case files.

The review has identified more than 2,100 files that contain forensic evidence with named suspects. The state has sent hundreds of samples to a private Fairfax County lab, Bode Technology Group, for testing. Marone said he won't send more until the grant is approved. "I'm trying to hold off so I can use federal money rather than state money" for the testing.

Marone said the lab work should be finished within a year, assuming the grant is authorized soon. The review is focusing only on cases involving violent offenses that triggered lengthy prison sentences.

-- Bill Brubaker