DNA testing backlog !

DNA is a huge benefit - or a tragic curse - depending on whether you are innocent or a criminal.
It allows the police to accurately determine if a suspect was present at a crime scene, and this can go a long way in proving guilt or innocence.

Crime scene investigators are constantly upgrading their skills to detect DNA evidence, but there has not been a corresponding increase in DNA testing staff at the state's crime laboratories. This backlog has increased from 6,400 cases waiting in November 09 - to a whopping 7,600 cases today.

This backlog can have tragic circumstances. People can rot in gaol awaiting evidence that will clear them of crime. In some cases, evidence collected before DNA testing was developed is waiting to either prove or disprove that a convicted criminal was responsible for the crime.

In other cases, people remain in gaol on remand and the case can not proceed because it hinges on DNA results that are mired somewhere in that incredible backlog of evidence awaiting examination.

To achieve justice the entire legal system must run smoothly and any bottleneck needs to be eliminated. In an ideal world evidence would be quickly collected - the case would go before a court - and a positive or negative result would settle the matter.

It seems to be the inevitable obstacle of money. More DNA technicians need to be trained - and money allocated to hiring them to staff expanded DNA laboratories. This seems low on the scale of priorities. When it comes down to items that draw public attention - things like gas heaters in schools and fixing the road system comes a long way ahead of making the legal system faster and fairer.

Unless that happens to include a person unfairly accused of a crime !