28 C.F.R. Subpart C—Preservation of Biological Evidence
Title 28 - Judicial Administration
Source: Order No. 2762–2005, 70 FR 21957, Apr. 28, 2005, unless otherwise noted.
Section 3600A of title 18 of the United States Code (“section 3600A”) requires the Government to preserve biological evidence that was secured in the investigation or prosecution of a Federal offense, if a defendant is under a sentence of imprisonment for such offense, subject to certain limitations and exceptions. The general purpose of this requirement is to preserve biological evidence for possible DNA testing under 18 U.S.C. 3600. Subsection (e) of section 3600A requires the Attorney General to promulgate regulations to implement and enforce section 3600A, including appropriate disciplinary sanctions to ensure that employees comply with such regulations. (a) Applicability in general. The requirement of section 3600A to preserve biological evidence applies to evidence that has been retained in cases in which the offense or conviction occurred prior to the enactment of section 3600A or the adoption of this subpart, as well as to evidence secured in pending and future cases. (b) Limitation to circumstances in which a defendant is under a sentence of imprisonment for the offense. The requirement of section 3600A to preserve biological evidence secured in the investigation or prosecution of a Federal offense begins to apply when a defendant is convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for the offense, and ceases to apply when the defendant or defendants are released following such imprisonment. The evidence preservation requirement of section 3600A does not apply in the following situations: (1) Inapplicability at the investigative stage. The requirement of section 3600A to preserve biological evidence does not apply at the investigative stage of criminal cases, occurring prior to the conviction and sentencing to imprisonment of a defendant. Biological evidence may be collected and preserved in the investigation of Federal offenses prior to the sentencing of a defendant to imprisonment, reflecting sound investigative practice and the need for evidence in trial proceedings that may result from the investigation, but section 3600A does not govern these activities. (2) Inapplicability to cases involving only non-incarcerative sentences. The requirement of section 3600A to preserve biological evidence does not apply in cases in which defendants receive only nonincarcerative sentences, such as probation, fines, or payment of restitution. (3) Inapplicability following release. The requirement of section 3600A to preserve biological evidence ceases to apply when the defendant or defendants are released following imprisonment, either unconditionally or under supervision. The requirement does not apply during any period following the release of the defendant or defendants from imprisonment, even if the defendant or defendants remain on supervised release or parole. (4) Inapplicability following revocation of release. The requirement of section 3600A to preserve biological evidence applies during a defendant's imprisonment pursuant to the sentence imposed upon conviction of the offense, as opposed to later imprisonment resulting from a violation of release conditions. The requirement does not apply during any period in which the defendant or defendants are imprisoned based on the revocation of probation, supervised release, or parole. (c) Conditions of preservation. The requirement of section 3600A to preserve biological evidence means that such evidence cannot be destroyed or disposed of under the circumstances in which section 3600A requires its preservation, but does not limit agency discretion concerning the conditions under which biological evidence is maintained or the transfer of biological evidence among different agencies. (a) Biological evidence generally. The evidence preservation requirement of section 3600A applies to “biological evidence,” which is defined in section 3600A(b). The covered evidence is sexual assault forensic examination kits under section 3600A(b)(1) and semen, blood, saliva, hair, skin tissue, or other identified biological material under section 3600A(b)(2). (b) Biological evidence under section 3600A(b)(2). Biological evidence within the scope of section 3600A(b)(2) is identified biological material that may derive from a perpetrator of the offense, and hence might be capable of shedding light on the question of a defendant's guilt or innocence through DNA testing to determine whether the defendant is the source of the material. In greater detail, evidence within the scope of section 3600A(b)(2) encompasses the following: (1) Identified biological material. Beyond sexual assault forensic examination kits, which are specially referenced in section 3600A(b)(1), section 3600A requires preservation only of evidence that is detected and identified as semen, blood, saliva, hair, skin tissue, or some other type of biological material. Section 3600A's preservation requirement does not apply to an item of evidence merely because it is known on theoretical grounds that physical things that have been in proximity to human beings almost invariably contain unidentified and imperceptible amounts of their organic matter. (2) Material that may derive from a perpetrator of the crime. Biological evidence within the scope of section 3600A(b)(2) must constitute “biological material.” In the context of section 3600A, this term does not encompass all possible types of organic matter, but rather refers to organic matter that may derive from the body of a perpetrator of the crime, and hence might be capable of shedding light on a defendant's guilt or innocence by including or excluding the defendant as the source of its DNA. Example 1. In a murder case in which the victim struggled with the killer, scrapings of skin tissue or blood taken from under the victim's fingernails would constitute biological material in the sense of section 3600A(b)(2), and would be subject to section 3600A's requirement to preserve biological evidence, assuming satisfaction of the statute's other conditions. Such material, which apparently derives from the perpetrator of the crime, could potentially shed light on guilt or innocence through DNA testing under 18 U.S.C. 3600 to determine whether a defendant was the source of this material. Example 2. Biological material in the sense of section 3600A(b)(2) would not include the body of a murder victim who was shot from a distance, the carcasses of cattle in a meat truck secured in an investigation of the truck's hijacking, a quantity of marijuana seized in a drug trafficking investigation, or articles made from wood or from wool or cotton fiber. While such items of evidence constitute organic matter in a broader sense, they are not biological material within the scope of section 3600A(b)(2), because they do not derive from the body of a perpetrator of the crime, and hence could not shed light on a defendant's guilt or innocence through DNA testing under 18 U.S.C. 3600 to determine whether the defendant is the source of the evidence. Subsection (c) of section 3600A makes the biological evidence preservation requirement inapplicable in two circumstances relating to the results of judicial proceedings: (a) Judicial denial of DNA testing. Section 3600A(c)(1) exempts situations in which a court has denied a motion for DNA testing under 18 U.S.C. 3600 and no appeal is pending. (b) Inclusion of defendant as source. Section 3600A(c)(5) exempts situations in which there has been DNA testing under 18 U.S.C. 3600 and the results included the defendant as the source of the evidence. Subsection (c) of section 3600A makes the biological evidence preservation requirement inapplicable in two circumstances relating to action (or inaction) by the defendant: (a) Waiver by defendant. Section 3600A(c)(2) makes the biological evidence preservation requirement inapplicable if the defendant knowingly and voluntarily waived DNA testing in a court proceeding conducted after the date of enactment, i.e., after October 30, 2004. Hence, for example, if a defendant waives DNA testing in the context of a plea agreement, in a pretrial colloquy with the court, in the course of discovery in pretrial proceedings, or in a postconviction proceeding, and the proceeding in which the waiver occurs takes place after October 30, 2004, the biological evidence preservation requirement of section 3600A does not apply. (b) Notice to defendant. (1) Section 3600A(c)(3) makes the biological evidence preservation requirement inapplicable if the defendant is notified that the biological evidence may be destroyed “after a conviction becomes final and the defendant has exhausted all opportunities for direct review of the conviction,” and “the defendant does not file a motion under section 3600 within 180 days of receipt of the notice.” (2) Effective notice concerning the possible destruction of biological evidence for purposes of section 3600A(c)(3) cannot be given if the case is pending on direct review of the conviction before a court of appeals or the Supreme Court, if time remains for the defendant to file a notice of appeal from the judgment of conviction in the court of appeals, or if time remains for the defendant to file a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court following the court of appeals' determination of an appeal of the conviction. (3) Once direct review has been completed, or the time for seeking direct review has expired, section 3600A(c)(3) allows notice to the defendant that biological evidence may be destroyed. The biological evidence preservation requirement of section 3600A thereafter does not apply, unless the defendant files a motion under 18 U.S.C. 3600 within 180 days of receipt of the notice. Notice to a defendant that biological evidence may be destroyed may be provided by certified mail, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons shall create a record concerning the delivery of such mail to an inmate. To determine whether a defendant has filed a motion under 18 U.S.C. 3600 within 180 days of receipt of such a notice, the agency providing the notice may obtain confirmation of delivery and the date of delivery by inquiry with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and may ascertain whether the defendant has filed a motion under 18 U.S.C. 3600 within 180 days of that date by checking the records of the district court which entered the judgment of conviction of the defendant for the offense or asking the United States Attorney's office in that district. Subsection (c)(4) of section 3600A provides that the section's biological evidence preservation requirement does not apply if “the evidence must be returned to its rightful owner, or is of such a size, bulk, or physical character as to render retention impracticable.” This exception is subject to the condition that the Government must “take[] reasonable measures to remove and preserve portions of the material evidence sufficient to permit future DNA testing.” (a) Evidence not retained beyond the investigative stage. Section 3600A(c)(4) has no application if items of the sort it describes—e.g., items that must be returned to the rightful owner, or items that are so large that their retention is impracticable—are not kept until the time when a defendant is convicted and sentenced to imprisonment. Investigative agents may take samples from such items during the investigative stage of the case, in accordance with their judgment about what is needed for purposes of DNA testing or other evidentiary use, or may conclude that the nature of the items does not warrant taking such samples, and the items themselves may then be returned to the owners or otherwise disposed of prior to the trial, conviction, or sentencing of any defendant. In such cases, section 3600A is inapplicable, because its evidence preservation requirement does not apply at all until a defendant is sentenced to imprisonment, as noted in §28.22(b)(1). (b) Evidence not constituting biological material. It is rarely the case that a bulky item of the sort described in section 3600A(c)(4), or a large part of such an item, constitutes biological evidence as defined in section 3600A(b). If such an item is not biological evidence in the relevant sense, it is outside the scope of section 3600A. For example, the evidence secured in the investigation of a bank robbery may include a stolen car that was used in the getaway, and there may be some item in the car containing biological material that derives from a perpetrator of the crime, such as saliva on a discarded cigarette butt. Even if the vehicle is kept until a defendant is sentenced to imprisonment, section 3600A's preservation requirement would not apply to the vehicle as such, because the vehicle is not biological material. It would be sufficient for compliance with section 3600A to preserve the particular items in the vehicle that contain identified biological material or portions of them that contain the biological material. (c) Preservation of portions sufficient for DNA testing. If evidence described in section 3600A(c)(4) is not otherwise exempt from the preservation requirement of section 3600A, and section 3600A(c)(4) is relied on in disposing of such evidence, reasonable measures must be taken to preserve portions of the evidence sufficient to permit future DNA testing. For example, considering a stolen car used in a bank robbery, it may be the case that one of the robbers was shot during the getaway and bled all over the interior of the car. In such a case, if the car is kept until a defendant is sentenced to imprisonment for the crime, there would be extensive biological material in the car that would potentially be subject to section 3600A's requirement to preserve biological evidence. Moreover, the biological material in question could not be fully preserved without retaining the whole car or removing and retaining large amounts of matter from the interior of the car. Section 3600A(c)(4) would be relevant in such a case, given that fully retaining the biological evidence is likely to be impracticable or inconsistent with the rightful owner's entitlement to the return of the vehicle. In such a case, section 3600A(c)(4) could be relied on, and its requirements would be satisfied if samples of the blood were preserved sufficient to permit future DNA testing. Preserving such samples would dispense with any need under section 3600A to retain the vehicle itself or larger portions thereof. Section 3600A's requirement to preserve biological evidence applies cumulatively with other evidence retention requirements. It does not preempt or supersede any statute, regulation, court order, or other provision of law that may require evidence, including biological evidence, to be preserved. (a) Disciplinary sanctions. Violations of section 3600A or of this subpart by Government employees shall be subject to the disciplinary sanctions authorized by the rules or policies of their employing agencies for violations of statutory or regulatory requirements. (b) Criminal sanctions. Violations of section 3600A may also be subject to criminal sanctions as prescribed in subsection (f) of that section. Section 3600A(f) makes it a felony offense, punishable by up to five years of imprisonment, for anyone to knowingly and intentionally destroy, alter, or tamper with biological evidence that is required to be preserved under section 3600A with the intent to prevent that evidence from being subjected to DNA testing or prevent the production or use of that evidence in an official proceeding. (c) No effect on validity of convictions. Section 3600A's requirements are enforceable through the disciplinary sanctions and criminal sanctions described in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section. A failure to preserve biological evidence as required by section 3600A does not provide a basis for relief in any postconviction proceeding.
Title 28: Judicial Administration
PART 28—DNA IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM
Subpart C—Preservation of Biological Evidence
§ 28.21 Purpose.
§ 28.22 The requirement to preserve biological evidence.
§ 28.23 Evidence subject to the preservation requirement.
§ 28.24 Exceptions based on the results of judicial proceedings.
§ 28.25 Exceptions based on a defendant's conduct.
§ 28.26 Exceptions based on the nature of the evidence.
§ 28.27 Non-preemption of other requirements.
§ 28.28 Sanctions for violations.
