Harvey v. Horan

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Harvey v. Horan
Court	United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Full case name	James Harvey v. Robert F. Horan, Jr., Commonwealth's Attorney, County of Fairfax
Argued	September 26, 2001
Decided	January 23, 2002
Citation(s)	278 F. 3d 370 (4th Cir. 2002)
Case history
Prior history	119 F.Supp.2d 581 (E.D. Va. 2000)
Subsequent history	Rehearing en banc denied, 285 F.3d 298 (4th Cir. 2002)
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting	J. Harvie Wilkinson III, Paul V. Niemeyer, Robert Bruce King
Case opinions
Majority	Wilkinson, joined by Niemeyer
Concurrence	King
Laws applied
42 U.S.C. § 1983

Harvey v. Horan, 278 F. 3d 370 (4th Cir. 2002), is a federal court case dealing with felons' rights of access to DNA testing. The Eastern Virginia District Court originally found that felons were entitled access to DNA testing on potentially exculpatory evidence, but this finding was later overturned by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Nevertheless, the case paved the way for the Innocence Protection Act, which ensures that convicted offenders can try to prove their innocence by requesting DNA testing on evidence in government's possession that was used in their case.