Supreme Court Allows State Prisoners to Seek DNA Evidence Through US Civil Rights Law

A Texas death-row inmate seeking a right to DNA evidence may pursue his claim under the federal civil rights law, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. The Supreme Court ruled in 2009 in District Attorney’s Office v. Osborne that inmates have no constitutional right to DNA evidence but left open the question whether suits seeking the evidence could be brought under Section 1983. In today’s 6-3 ruling in Skinner v. Switzer, the court allowed the claim. The suit by inmate Hank Skinner had alleged the Texas DNA statute, as construed by the courts, violated his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process. As a result, there…