Former panelists back test of DNA

• By JOE GYAN JR.
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jun 18, 2009 - Page: 1B

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Former members of the National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence jumped into the fray Wednesday between a convicted Baton Rouge rapist and prosecutors.

Kenneth Reed Jr. says DNA testing would exonerate him.

The East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney’s Office contends Reed is not entitled to the test.

Nine former members of the commission filed a friend of the court brief at the state 1st Circuit Court of Appeal backing a judge’s decision to order the testing in Reed’s case.

Reed, 38, is serving a life sentence in the 1991 aggravated rape of a 16-year-old girl.

The National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence was convened by the U.S. attorney general in the late 1990s to set policy in this area.

The former commission members said in their brief that DNA test results have helped exonerate 238 people.

“The vast majority of exonerations — more than 75 percent — overturned convictions based on mistaken eyewitness identifications,’’ the former commission members argue.

“The percentage of mistaken identifications is even higher in rape cases.’’

The former commission members contend DNA testing is “clearly warranted’’ in Reed’s case.

The District Attorney’s Office disagrees.

In documents filed at the 1st Circuit in March, prosecutors contend state District Judge Bonnie Jackson erred in ordering the DNA tests for Reed in January.

The victim testified at Reed’s trial that she knew Reed and his co-defendant, William Reese, from the neighborhood and she saw and recognized both men during the pre-dawn attack.