Justice in Forensic Algorithms Act of 2019

Summary

Justice in Forensic Algorithms Act of 2019 This bill establishes federal standards and procedures for the use of computational forensic software. ( Computational forensic software refers to software that relies on an automated or semiautomated computational process to process, analyze, or interpret evidence.) It also prohibits the use of trade secret protections to prevent criminal defendants from accessing evidence. First, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) must establish the Computational Forensic Algorithm Standards for the development and use of computational forensic software. These standards must, among other things, address requirements related to software testing and reporting to criminal defendants on the use and results of software in their cases. Further, NIST must establish the Computational Forensic Algorithm Testing Program. The testing program must, among other things, test individual software programs using NIST standards. Federal law enforcement agencies and related crime laboratories must comply with these NIST standards and testing requirements in their use of computational forensic software. In addition, criminal defendants must receive information resulting from analysis by computational forensic software, including access to the software for testing purposes. Evidence resulting from computational forensic software is only admissible in a criminal case if (1) the software was submitted to the NIST testing program, and (2) the software developers and users waive their legal claims against the defense for the purposes of the defense analyzing or testing such software. The bill also prohibits the use of trade secret protections when a criminal defendant would otherwise be entitled to obtain evidence.

This text is taken from the official record. PoliticalRepo does not editorialize.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

3 official files

• Introduced in House (text)

  Introduced in House · EN · 17 September 2019

  ViewDownloadOpen at official source

• Introduced in House (PDF)

  Introduced in House · EN · 17 September 2019

  ViewDownloadOpen at official source

• Introduced in House

  summary · EN · 17 September 2019

  Open at official source

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.