This just in via email:

Wednesday, by a vote of 357-67, the House of Representatives approved H.R. 3214, the Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology Act of 2003, a comprehensive package of programs that provides over $1 billion over the next five years to assist Federal and State authorities in solving crimes and protecting the innocent.

H.R. 3214 includes the Innocence Protection Act of 2003, which would help ensure eligible inmates access to DNA testing to establish their innocence and would authorize grants to the States to improve the quality of legal representation in capital cases.

As hard as we have lobbied for an Innocence Protection Act the past several years, this bill is not a cure-all and contains several changes and omissions from the Innocence Protection Acts introduced in recent Congresses. We regret the degree to which protections have been watered down in order to achieve political compromise and passage. Still, this is an achievement for which the primary champions of the legislation, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-MA) and Congressmen William Delahunt (D-MA) and Ray LaHood (R-IL), deserve praise.

Here is the position of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers ( NACDL) on the legislation, with which we whole-heartedly agree.