SCOTUS: Prisoner can assert civil rights claim for DNA evidence access

By Kimberly Atkins The Daily Record Newswire Nearly two years after its divided ruling that a criminal defendant does not have a constitutional right to DNA testing after conviction, the U.S. Supreme Court held last week that a convicted prisoner seeking DNA testing of crime-scene evidence may assert a civil rights §1983 claim. In Skinner v. Switzer, the Court held that prisoners are not limited to habeas claims to assert a right to post-conviction DNA access. In the 6-3 ruling, the Court stated that that issue was left unresolved by its ruling in D.A.'s Office for Third Judicial District v. Osborne. Also decided last week was Wall v. Kholi, in which the Court clarified the definition of ''collateral review'' under The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. The term means judicial review of a judgment in a proceeding that is not part of direct review, the Court held. And in Milner v. Dept. of Navy, the Court held that the Freedom of Information Act's Exemption 2 encompasses only records relating to employee relations and human resources issues, not data related to explosives maps and other data. Published: Thu, Mar 17, 2011