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  Wednesday  February 20  2002    01: 27 AM

Justice thanks to DNA

Yet Another DNA Exoneration

The lesson is that the laws governing post-conviction DNA testing need to be relaxed enough to make it the rule, not the exception, where a claim of innocence can be verified or refuted on the strength of a new test. There have been more than enough of these cases to demonstrate that a certain humility -- the flexibility to correct errors -- needs to be built into the criminal justice system. Even in the absence of more permissive rules, prosecutors need to be more open to testing that could undermine a verdict. You just never know when a seemingly airtight case will melt on close inspection. Mr. Godschalk had been asking for seven years that this material be tested. Someone should have recognized earlier the possibility -- however remote -- that he was telling the truth.
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thanks to the bitter shack of resentment