December 29, 2015
Creates Puerto Rico's post-conviction DNA testing statute. A person convicted of murder in any degree, homicide, negligent homicide, sexual assault, incest, lewd acts, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, aggravated damage, aggravated restraint of liberty, kidnapping or aggravated kidnapping (including attempts) may move in the Court of First Instance for an order compelling DNA analysis of evidence held by the Instituto de Ciencias Forenses, the Department of Justice or the Police, or found after trial. Art. 2(e) defines biological evidence to expressly include the contents of the sexual assault kit. The motion must be served on the District Prosecutor within 24 hours and on the ADN databank created by Ley 175-1998; Art. 10 sets the grant standard, including availability and chain of custody of the evidence, identity as a significant issue, and a reasonable probability the result would have changed. Art. 18 requires immediate consignment of the described evidence to the Instituto de Ciencias Forenses on filing; Art. 19 makes destruction in contravention a violation of Art. 285 of the 2012 Penal Code carrying a fixed three-year term. Art. 20 governs expungement of the petitioner's profile from the databank on acquittal, retention if the analysis is inconclusive or inculpatory, and preservation where the profile hits to another offense. Later amended by Ley 73-2018 (Arts. 4, 5 and 7).