Congressman Goldman Fights To Curb Wrongful Convictions in 2024 Budget

Goldman and Colleagues Request Total of $55 Million for Legal Work, DNA Testing, and Forensics Research

Critical Innocence and Forensic Science Programs Prevent Wrongful Convictions, Free Innocent Defendants

Black Americans Seven Times More Likely to be Wrongfully Convicted, Spend 45 Percent More Time in Prison

Read the Letter Here

Washington D.C. – Congressman Dan Goldman (NY-10) and Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08) led a group of 68 members of Congress in requesting at least $55 million in funding for innocence and forensic science programs that will improve the fairness and accuracy and help address racial disparities in the criminal legal system. Goldman and Raskin are requesting $15 million for investigative and legal work to exonerate the innocent, $15 million for post-conviction DNA testing programs, and $25 million for research to improve forensic science fields.

This request is one of Congressman Goldman’s letters to the House Appropriations Committee for inclusion in the Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2024.

“We have an obligation to guarantee a fair and even-handed criminal justice system for all Americans,” Congressman Dan Goldman said. “There is a critical need for programs that ensure our legal system is not wrongly convicting innocent defendants. I am proud to be joined by my colleagues in the fight to realize a legal system that truly embodies our nation’s core values of fairness and equal justice under the law.”

“A just legal system equipped with the highest quality forensic tools to determine guilt and innocence is essential to a free democracy,” Congressman Jamie Raskin said. “When innocent people are convicted of crimes they did not commit, the criminal justice systems loses its credibility, lives are ruined, and public safety is put at risk with the real culprits at large. Robust innocence and forensic science programs help ensure a fair and accurate criminal legal system which does not simply round up the usual suspects. I’m thankful to my colleague and friend Congressman Goldman for leading this letter with me to request funding for these critical programs.” 

Representatives Goldman and Raskin led their colleagues in asking for $15 million for the Wrongful Conviction Review Program at the Department of Justice to support the investigation and legal work required to exonerate the innocent, $15 million for the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Program to support states’ and localities’ use of post-conviction DNA testing to ensure the integrity of state and local criminal legal systems and to exonerate the innocent when appropriate, and $25 million for the National Institute of Standards and Technology to conduct the foundational research to improve forensic science fields.

Rebecca Brown, Director of Policy, Innocence Project said, "The Innocence Network, a national, non-partisan network of approximately 60 local, homegrown innocence organizations, greatly appreciates Congress' support of these crucial federal innocence and forensic science programs to free the innocent from the unique horror of wrongful conviction. And while these programs help to exonerate the innocent, they also provide a lens through which states, localities, and advocates can enhance the reliability, accuracy, and fairness of criminal investigations and prosecutions, as well as ensure a fairer criminal legal system that provides true justice to all stakeholders, including victims of crime." 

Wrongful convictions have occurred in cases where DNA evidence is insufficient or unavailable to prove innocence. Over 3,300 people have been exonerated since 1989, 375 of which were based primarily on DNA testing and analysis. In 2021 alone the National Registry of Exonerations reported 161 exonerations. Exonerees lost an average of 11.5 years to wrongful imprisonment for crimes they did not commit.

The data is even more stark for Black Americans, who constitute more than half of the individuals exonerated since 1989. Innocent Black people spend approximately 45 percent more time wrongfully imprisoned, a racial disparity that holds true across different types of convictions.

These critical innocence and forensic science programs not only help to prevent wrongful convictions, but also enhance the accuracy of criminal investigations, strengthen criminal prosecutions, and ensure a fairer system of justice that provides true justice to victims of crime and the wrongfully accused.