Casar comments on DNA lab plan

Yesterday City Council took steps to hand off the city’s troubled DNA lab to the Texas Department of Public Safety, which has agreed to revamp the department over the next five years. Part of that was approving an agreement with Travis County to split the costs of contracts to find out what went wrong and to review cases that were possibly affected. Last night, Council Member Greg Casar released a statement praising the action “even as I am disappointed that we have an evidence backlog in the first place.” Yesterday’s actions “will move us in the direction of justice,” he continued, “and I appreciate the work of advocates in raising these issues and City staff in working with stakeholders to advance this work.”