“We have a paper system, but we’re confident in our paper system, and we put a lot of resources in being able to recover evidence so that any innocent person who wants [it] can find it,” said Giannelli, who cited the cases of Newton and Fappiano as proof that the evidence could be tracked and retrieved through the system.
The NYPD, which is currently assisting the Innocence Project in re-investigating the previously-closed New York cases, maintains that it has adopted a barcode system to track the material and has formed a study group to explore ways to modernize its catalogue. But Assemblyman Lentol, who characterized the Pearson Place Warehouse as a “dump” at the hearing, was disappointed at the NYPD’s unshaken defense of its storage procedures. “Obviously, we saw how two people can live in the same city and live in two different worlds,” he said, adding that he plans to file a request to tour Pearson Place.
Crucial to enacting any proposed legislation, criminal justice experts say, is support from prosecutors. "We strongly believe that DNA technology is beneficial in serving the interests of justice. To the extent that we are able to utilize existing technology to better preserve and catalogue DNA evidence, we can not only prosecute the guilty more effectively but also exonerate the innocent which is equally important,” Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson said in a statement to City Limits.
But Johnson wasn’t at the hearing, and although the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said they had representatives in attendance, Assemblyman Lentol didn’t know it. “We invited all of them to attend and they didn’t send anybody. This isn’t just about the police because they also operate a great deal of control over the evidence,” said Lentol, who was an assistant D.A. in Brooklyn in the 1970’s. “We need an endorsement from prosecutors to get these measures passed. This issue is just too important for them to be silent.”
