More evidence Obama’s DOJ is just not that into change in the criminal justice arena
Tony Mauro has this interesting new post at The Blog of Legal Times, titled “SG Won’t Disavow Bush Position in Controversial DNA Case.” Here is how the post starts:
The solicitor general’s office has turned down a request by the Innocence Project to disavow a Bush Administration stance on prisoners’ access to DNA evidence in postconviction proceedings. As a result, on March 2, Neal Katyal will make his debut as deputy solicitor general by arguing before the Supreme Court in support of the state of Alaska’s view that prisoners have no constitutional right to obtain DNA evidence that might help them prove their innocence — even if the prisoners pay for the DNA testing themselves. The case is District Attorney’s Office for the Third Judicial District v. Osborne.
The decision to maintain the same position as the Bush Administration in the case has caused deep disappointment among innocence advocates, especially in light of President Barack Obama’s strong support of access to DNA evidence while a state senator in Illinois, where many of the early successes in exonerating innocent inmates through DNA evidence took place.
The episode also highlights the tension between a new administration’s eagerness to change direction, and the institutional reluctance in the solicitor general’s office to shift gears too suddenly, for fear of losing credibility with the high court.
As I have indicated in a number of prior posts, the Obama Administration has given very few signals that it is seriously interested in changing course on an array of lower-profile (but very consequential) criminal justice issues. I am pleased to see the Innocence Project urging a new direction, and I hope lots of other public policy groups will formally advocate for the Obama Administration’s litigation realities to match up with the new President’s soaring rhetoric. But, as this Osborne example spotlights, I fear that “change” may not amount to much more than a slogan in many federal criminal justice settings.
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