For Immediate Release
May 12, 2005
Please Contact: Michael Bloom, 617-722-1650

Push to Eliminate DNA Delays Heats Up
Administration Faces Tough Questions at Oversight Hearing

Top administration officials faced tough questions from legislators today about what is being done to eliminate delays in DNA processing at the state’s crime labs. The Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, led by Senate Chair Senator Jarrett T. Barrios, questioned the officials at an oversight hearing organized after serious questioned were raised about whether the crime labs have the resources to fulfill their mandate.

“Delays in DNA processing are undermining our state’s ability to keep neighborhoods and families safe,” said Senator Barrios. “DNA can help identify and convict dangerous criminals, as well as work to clear the wrongly accused. Our criminal labs are so backlogged and under resourced it’s safe to say we’re in crisis mode.”

The first to testify at the hearing was Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe, who weeks ago shined a spotlight on the DNA delays when announcing the arrest of a suspect in the Christa Worthington murder. According to O’Keefe the results of the suspect’s DNA were held up because of the delays at the State Police Crime Lab.

Edward A. Flynn, Secretary of the Executive Office of Public Safety, and Director of the State Police Crime Lab, Dr. Carl Selavka, faced tough questions from Barrios about what the state has done to implement reforms and funding increases approved by the Legislature over the past two years.

Senator Barrios, in a proposal supported by the Governor, is calling for in increase in crime lab funding to hire of 33 new staff members, boosting overall staff levels at the lab from 95 to 128 people, as well as the acquisition of new leased lab space. For years the lab has suffered from chronic understaffing and poor funding.

In 2003, the Senate acted to bolster the Crime Lab’s productivity by including a proposal in the FY2004 budget to streamline the State Police Crime Lab, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner as well as several other law enforcement departments together under one agency to minimize duplication, and increase coordination and accountability. That proposal was vetoed by the Governor in 2003 but ultimately approved by the Legislature and Governor in 2004. Barrios cites the Legislature’s reforms and improvement in the Crime Lab’s DNA processing capacity as crucial to the overall success of law enforcement and criminal prosecution efforts in the Commonwealth. “The proper processing and analysis of DNA evidence is central to our modern criminal justice system,” said Barrios.

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