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Committee deadlocks on 'actual innocence' bill after long debate over process and safeguards
Summary
Senate Bill 256, which would create a single post-conviction vehicle for new evidence of innocence (including cases resolved by guilty plea), drew extensive testimony from the Tennessee Innocence Project and opposition from the District Attorneys General Conference. The committee split and the bill remained in committee.
Senate Bill 256, a proposal to create a single post-conviction procedure for new evidence proving actual innocence, failed to advance from the Senate Judiciary Committee after a lengthy hearing that included emotional testimony from an exoneree and legal debate over process safeguards.
The bill, as amended, would consolidate existing paths for presenting newly discovered evidence (scientific and non-scientific) into a single petition allowing a court to consider claims that a convicted person is actually innocent. The legislation would also close a gap for persons who entered guilty pleas and later acquired non-scientific evidence of innocence (for example, a video or eyewitness evidence excluding the defendant). Additionally, the bill would allow district attorneys to initiate innocence petitions when they encounter…
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