y from the pro-death-penalty argument. And fairness is increasingly important to the public. Although only two states-Illinois and New York-currently give inmates the right to have their DNA tested, 95 percent of Americans want that right guaranteed, according to the NEwswEEK Poll. Close to 90 percent even support the idea of federal guarantees of DNA testing (contained in the bipartisan LeahySmith Innocence Protection bill), though Bush and Gore, newly conscious of the issue, both prefer state remedies. The explanation for the public mood may be that cases of injustice keep coming, and not just on recent episodes of the "The Practice" that (with Scheck as a script adviser) uncannily anticipated the McGinn case. In the last week alone Bush pardoned A. B. Butler after he served 17 years in prison for a sexual assault he didn't commit, and Virginia Gov. James Gilmore ordered new testing that will likely free Earl Washington, also after 17 years behind bars. All told, more than 70 inmates have been exonerated by DNA evidence since 1982, including eight on death row. Death-penalty advocates often point out that no one has been proved innocent after execution. But the DNA evidence that could establish such innocence has frequently been lost by prosecutors with no incentive to keep it. In a recent Virginia case, a court actually prevented posthumous examination of DNA evidence. On the defense side, lawyers and investigators concentrate their scarce resources on cases where lives can be spared. And while DNA answers some questions, it raises others: if so many inmates are exonerated in rape and rape-murder cases where DNA is obtainable, how about the vast majority of murders, where there is no DNA? Might not the rate of error be comparable? Politics, for once, seems to be in the background, largely because views of the death penalty don't break down strictly along party lines. Ryan of Illinois is a Republican; Gray Davis, the hard-line governo...
