{"id":11524,"date":"2025-06-26T08:25:53","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T15:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11524"},"modified":"2025-06-26T08:25:53","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T15:25:53","slug":"standing-to-seek-dna-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11524","title":{"rendered":"Standing to Seek DNA Testing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Supreme Court today <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/24pdf\/23-7809_3e04.pdf\">decided<\/a>, 5-1-3, that a Texas death row inmate has standing to challenge that state&#8217;s procedures for seeking DNA testing.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Alito, dissenting, was critical of Justice Sotomayor&#8217;s majority opinion, to put it mildly:<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Court and I agree on one thing: we should decide this case based on the test adopted in <em>Reed<\/em> v. <em>Goertz<\/em>, 598 U. S. 230, 234 (2023). After that, however, the majority veers sharply off course. First, it blatantly alters the <em>Reed<\/em> test. See <em>ante<\/em>, at 1\u20132, 8, 10. Second, it then has the audacity to criticize the Fifth Circuit for applying the real <em>Reed<\/em> test. See <em>ante<\/em>, at 9. Third, it ignores critical differences between the situation in <em>Reed<\/em> and the situation here. See <em>ante<\/em>, at 9\u201311. Fourth, it paints a misleading picture of underlying facts and Gutierrez\u2019s decades-long litigation campaign. See ante, at 2\u20136. Fifth, it fails to recognize the limited scope of the declaratory judgment at issue. See <em>ante<\/em>, at 9. And sixth, it ignores lawful and binding Texas law regarding the facts that may be considered when a prisoner seeks DNA testing. See <em>ibid<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I am generally not a fan of using the standing doctrine to block efforts to challenge a law. That double-edged sword is regularly used against victims of crime. When the law is valid, it is better to just defend it on the merits, in my opinion.<\/p>\n<p>The case is <em>Gutierrez<\/em> v. <em>Saenz<\/em>, No. 23-7809.<\/p>\n<p>In other action, the Court decided that the 2018 reduction of penalties in certain firearms cases applies to pre-2018 defendants whose judgments are vacated on other grounds and resentenced. The case is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/24pdf\/23-1002_1p24.pdf\"><em>Hewitt<\/em> v.\u00a0<em>United States<\/em><\/a>, No. 23-1002.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Supreme Court today decided, 5-1-3, that a Texas death row inmate has standing to challenge that state&#8217;s procedures for seeking DNA testing. Justice Alito, dissenting, was critical of Justice Sotomayor&#8217;s majority opinion, to put it mildly:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,17,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-suits","category-evidence","category-u-s-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Standing to Seek DNA Testing - Crime &amp; Consequences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11524\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Standing to Seek DNA Testing - Crime &amp; Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The U.S. Supreme Court today decided, 5-1-3, that a Texas death row inmate has standing to challenge that state&#8217;s procedures for seeking DNA testing. 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