00Enrolled HJR 34                                                                                                         
01 Urging the United States Congress to reauthorize the Debbie Smith DNA backlog grant                                     
02 program.                                                                                                                
03                                       _______________                                                                   
04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                             
05      WHEREAS DNA technology is increasingly vital to ensuring accuracy and fairness                                   
06 in the criminal justice system, but is not yet considered a routine tool for criminal                                   
07 identification by law enforcement; and                                                                                  
08      WHEREAS over 50,000 law enforcement investigations have already been aided                                       
09 nationwide because of DNA matches made through the Federal Bureau of Investigation's                                    
10 Combined DNA Index System, bringing justice to victims and removing criminals from the                                  
11 streets; and                                                                                                            
12      WHEREAS the Innocence Project has used DNA in over 200 cases to exonerate                                        
13 persons who were wrongfully convicted of crimes; and                                                                    
14      WHEREAS Alaska and other states throughout the nation have significantly                                         
15 expanded their DNA programs to include a growing number of convicted and arrested felons                                
16 to match against unsolved crimes; and                                                                                   
17      WHEREAS the demand for DNA testing in both violent and nonviolent crimes has                                     

01 continued to increase as the reliability of this evidence is proven; and                                                
02      WHEREAS many laboratories still maintain DNA backlogs of six months or longer                                    
03 and are unable to meet the growing demand for DNA testing, despite funding commitments                                  
04 from state and local governments; and                                                                                   
05      WHEREAS the Debbie Smith DNA backlog grant program has permitted state and                                       
06 local governments an opportunity to begin to maximize the full potential of forensic DNA                                
07 through backlog reduction, but much work remains to be done;                                                            
08      BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature strongly urges the United States                                
09 Congress to reauthorize the Debbie Smith DNA backlog grant program at current or increased                              
10 levels.                                                                                                                 
11      COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Richard B. Cheney, Vice-                                
12 President of the United States and President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Nancy Pelosi,                            
13 Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; and the Honorable Ted Stevens and the                                     
14 Honorable Lisa Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S.                                              
15 Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.