Legislature agrees to DNA testing extension.

Legislation extending the deadline two years for criminal defendants convicted at trial to have their DNA tested for innocence claims unanimously passed both legislative chambers and was signed into law May 20.

That means two law schools working on innocence claims in Florida--at Nova Southeastern University's Innocence Project and Florida State University's Florida Innocence Initiative--will have until October 1, 2005, to ferret out, investigate, and file petitions for DNA testing from about 600 cases.

"It's been a long road to get there," said Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, sponsor of SB44.

A new feature added late in the House version of the bill by Rep. Ellyn Setnor Bogdanoff, R-Ft. Lauderdale, would have expanded the law to those defendants who plead guilty or no contest also to be eligible for post-conviction DNA testing, but failed to gather enough support.

That's not because Villalobos, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, doesn't agree with her equal-protection argument, a reminder that not everyone who pleads guilty necessarily is guilty because of coerced confessions or deal-making to avoid exposure to more prison time.

"You're either guilty or innocent, and it shouldn't make a difference what the circumstances of your conviction are," Villalobos said.

"But it was an issue we couldn't get the votes to pass it. I didn't want to put the bill in jeopardy."

Villalobos also said he believes "the best way to do it is without a deadline." That was the argument Second Judicial Circuit Public Defender Nancy Daniels, president of the Florida Public Defender Association, and Jennifer Greenberg, director of FSU's Florida Innocence Initiative, had made in testimony at committee meetings, echoing their stance in arguments made earlier at the Florida Supreme Court.

But, again, Villalobos said, there were not enough votes in the legislature for the rationale that there should be no deadline on innocence.

"We got what we could get. It's not nirvana," Villalobos said.

Greenberg agrees the law could be improved.

"Though this legislation is important, it is unsatisfying in many ways," she said.

While she said "we are thrilled to have additional time to work through and file meritorious cases," Greenberg wants to work with legislators to create a "fairer DNA system."

To make the system better, she said, she agrees with Bogdanoff's amendment that opens the DNA testing process up to those who enter pleas, not just those defendants convicted at...