Relating to forensic scientific evidence and postconviction relief

This bill allows a court to grant postconviction relief if a person who files an application for postconviction relief proves all of the following: 1) there is forensic scientific evidence that was not discoverable at the time of the person’s conviction or guilty plea or that undermines forensic scientific evidence used to convict the person, 2) the person proves by a preponderance of the evidence that the forensic scientific evidence would have probably changed the result of the trial or voided the factual basis of the guilty plea, and 3) the forensic scientific evidence would have been admissible under the Iowa rules of evidence in existence at the time of the person’s conviction or guilty plea. The bill provides that in determining whether forensic scientific evidence was not discoverable through the exercise of reasonable diligence, a court shall consider whether the claim or issue could not have been presented previously in the person’s original application or in any previously considered application.3. The bill does not create a cause of action against an expert who repudiates the expert’s original opinion during any proceeding that resulted in a conviction or whose opinion is undermined by any subsequent scientific research or technological advancement. The bill provides definitions of “forensic science”, “forensic scientific evidence”, “scientific knowledge”, “applied validity”, and “foundational validity”.