Penal Code 1405 Research Paper

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Solving the Case A man was walking his dog at night when he heard a gunshot. He ran to the place where he heard it and saw a young man shot on the floor with a gun beside him. He picked it up carelessly and put it aside then called 911. When the police arrived they took all the evidence with them. A month later there are police at his doorstep arresting him for the murder of the young man. He knew he was innocent so he requested a DNA test to set things straight.The police found fingerprints on the gun that belonged to another person who had actually committed the crime and he was set free. Penal Code 1405 was created for the convicted felons already in jail that have a reason to be found innocent. This policy was created specifically for California to get those innocent people out of jail. Others may claim that DNA evidence isn’t sufficient to convict someone for a crime or prove others innocent. But, DNA evidence from crime scenes has helped solve many more cases and found the criminals than those cases where people were wrongly convicted. Penal code 1405 gives convicted felons the chance to submit a written motion to the court to request forensic DNA testing. Penal code 1405 should remain a law because it gives incarcerated …show more content…

The Department of Justice says, "States began passing laws requiring offenders convicted of certain offenses to provide DNA samples." That DNA evidence can help convict someone of a crime and it helps to uncover more things about the crime itself. Investigators have been using forensic science to help them solve cases since before the 90 's, mostly fingerprints that were found at the crime scenes and on the victims (O 'Brien). DNA evidence has solved countless cases including ones that happened over a prolonged period of time because of the technological advancements there is

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