District Attorney's Office for the Third Judicial District, et al. v. William G. Osborne (557 U.S. 52)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 18, 2009 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 557 U.S. 52 · 129 S. Ct. 2308
- Decided
- June 18, 2009
- Term
- October Term 2008
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Roberts
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Chief Justice Roberts delivered the opinion of the Court. DNA testing has an unparalleled ability both to exonerate the wrongly convicted and to identify the guilty. It has the potential to significantly improve both the criminal justice system and police investigative practices. The Federal Government and the States have recognized this, and have developed special approaches to ensure that this evidentiary tool can be effectively incorporated into established criminal procedure — usually but not always through legislation. Against this prompt and considered response, the respondent, William Osborne, proposes a different approach: the recognition of a freestanding and far-reaching constitutional right of access to this new type of evidence. The nature of what he seeks is confirmed by his decision to file this lawsuit in federal court under 42 U. S. C. § 1983, not within the state criminal justice system. This approach would take the development of rules and procedures in this area out of the hands of legislatures and state courts shaping policy in a focused manner and turn it over to federal courts applying the broad parameters of the Due Process Clause. There is no reason to constitutionalize the issue in this way. Because the decision below would do just that, we reverse. I A This lawsuit arose out of a violent crime committed 16 years ago, which has resulted in a long…
Excerpt of a 39,893-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.