Assistance program
Postconviction Testing of DNA Evidence
$52.7 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Ojp Bureau of Justice Assistance, Justice, Department of
- Assistance
- Project Grants (Discretionary)
- CFDA number
- 16.820
- What it does
- This program’s primary goal is to assist states and units of local government with postconviction DNA testing in cases of violent felony offenses where actual innocence might be demonstrated. Funded projects are expected to implement some aspect of each of the following activities: 1. Identify potential postconviction DNA testing cases.. 2. Review appropriate postconviction cases to identify those in which DNA testing could prove the actual innocence of a person convicted of a violent felony offense as defined by state law. 3. Locate biological evidence associated with such postconviction cases. 4. Perform DNA analysis of appropriate biological evidence. 5. Locate, record, store, and retain biological evidence in adjudicated cases in accordance with best practices. 6. Modernize evidence retention practices for biological evidence in accordance with best practices. 7. Modernize and digitize the storage of existing files and records in adjudicated cases. 8. Implement modern, digitized file and record retention systems. Performance Measure 1: Number of new cases reviewed; and, Performance Measure 2: Number of exonerations.
- Who benefits
- Ensures the availability of fair and impartial administration of justice to Americans who may have been unjustly convicted.
- Who applies
- The following entities are eligible to apply: • States • Units of local government • Public institutions of higher education (including tribal institutions of higher education) For the purposes of this NOFO, the term “state†includes the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Foreign governments, foreign organizations, and foreign institutions of higher education are not eligible to apply. All recipients and subrecipients (including any for-profit organization) must forgo any profit or management fee.
- Authorized by
- Public Law 118-42; Statute 138, p. 25, 147
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments