Proposed bill could help exonerate wrongly accused

Hillyard was a guest on <a href=”http://610kvnu.com/assets/podcaster/324/2017_02_15_324_54442_2867.mp3″ target=”_blank”>KVNU’s For the People program Tuesday</a> and he talked about a bill that he is sponsoring during the current legislative session to further the work of <a href=”https://www.innocenceproject.org/” target=”_blank”>Project Innocence</a>. Hillyard said DNA evidence is much better now than it was 30 or even 10 years ago. People who have been in prison for serious crimes have been released after DNA evidence found they were not guilty.

He said, at times, the truly guilty parties have also been found years later through DNA evidence.

“Utah, through Project Innocence so far, they have found five people who were wrongfully convicted,” Hillyard explained. “The DNA evidence shows they were not the perpetrators of the crime. Those five people have been released.

“By the same token, I understand nationally it’s a much larger number, but about a third of these cases when they exonerate the person convicted, through the DNA they can find the person who actually committed the crime.”

Hillyard said the bill he is sponsoring would make it much easier for those in Project Innocence to gain access to the DNA that is needed for their work.

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