Jim Sensenbrenner: “And the most difficult of the issues that the manager's amendment deals with relates to the time limit for seeking…”

“And the most difficult of the issues that the manager's amendment deals with relates to the time limit for seeking post-conviction DNA testing. On one side there were a group of people who wanted to have no time limit at all, and a motion could be made at any time as long as the defendant was still alive and in jail. On the other side, there were people who wanted to have a hard and fast limit, and the shorter the limitation possible they were in favor of. Those people said that defendants would simply game the system waiting until the witnesses had died and the DNA had evaporated and, consequently, there would not be enough evidence to conduct a retrial. The compromise that was worked out, I think, is a fair one. For the first 5 years after conviction, there is a rebuttable presumption in favor of the test. After 5 years, there is a rebuttable presumption against the test, but the defendant can get a motion granted if the court finds that the applicant was incompetent at trial, there is newly discovered DNA evidence, or that denial of the motion to retest would result in manifest injustice or for good cause shown.”