Read this opinion for a primer on PCRA petitions requesting DNA testing. The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the dismissal of the defendant’s petition, which sought post-conviction DNA testing. Twenty years after his murder conviction, the defendant filed a PCRA petition, requesting DNA testing of various pieces of evidence. The lower court denied the petition, and the Superior Court affirmed. The Court ruled that the petition was untimely, and the defendant did not explain why, “if truly innocent, he did not seek immediate testing, or, at the very least, testing available as technology improved during the intervening years, rather than languishing [in prison], all the while being supposedly innocent.” Furthermore, the defendant did not explain how DNA testing results would demonstrate his actual innocence.
