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Oregon, Rhode Island Expand DNA Testing for Convicts Released From Jail

Both Rhode Island and Oregon recently expanded their laws allowing for DNA testing by people trying to prove they were wrongfully convicted.

Both states have enacted laws to expand access to DNA testing for people convicted of a crime who are no longer in prison, The Oregonian's Maxine Bernstein and The Providence Journal's Katie Mulvaney respectively report.

Steve T. Wax, legal director of Oregon's Innocence Project, told Bernstein that Oregon's law was one of the most restrictive in the country. In that state, the standard to get post-conviction DNA testing will now be showing there is a reasonable possibility that testing would lead to a finding of actual innocence.