Louisiana
Louisiana has no forensic science commission, no general lab accreditation mandate, and no analyst license outside DWI chemical testing. In 2024 it aligned Code of Evidence article 702 with the 2023 change to Federal Rule 702 and extended its post-conviction DNA testing article to 2030. From 2024 to 2026 it also narrowed post-conviction relief, including factual-innocence claims after guilty pleas. In 2026 it required statewide tracking of unresolved CODIS hits and a driver’s license hold for people who owe a DNA sample.
- Sources checked
- Part of
- Forensic Ledger
At a glance
- Oversight body
- None for crime labs. No forensic science commission or lab oversight board was found in a full-text law search. The Louisiana Sexual Assault Oversight Commission (R.S. 15:555) covers the response to sexual assault, not lab quality; Acts 2026, No. 724, effective June 3, 2026, added a member (15:555(A)(18)). The state police crime lab (R.S. 15:578) is an operating agency.
- Lab accreditation
- No general mandate. (1) In post-conviction DNA testing, if the district attorney and petitioner cannot agree on a lab, the court “shall designate” one accredited by an ILAC-MRA signatory to an ISO/IEC 17025 program with a forensic biology scope and compliant with the current FBI Quality Assurance Standards (C.Cr.P. art. 926.1(F)). The rule applies only when the parties cannot agree. Article 926.1(H)(5) allows, but does not require, clerks and agencies to send preserved evidence to such a lab for storage. (2) A lab issuing a certificate of analysis must give, on written request, each analyst’s education, training and experience and “a listing of all accreditations held by the laboratory or individual” (R.S. 15:499(D)). (3) For DWI chemical tests, the Department of Public Safety and Corrections “may use” a lab’s ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation in deciding whether to issue a permit (R.S. 32:663(B)).
- Analyst licensing
- Permits for DWI chemical testing only. Blood, urine and breath analyses are valid only if done under department-approved methods “by an individual or laboratory possessing a valid permit issued by said department,” and the department may revoke permits (R.S. 32:663(A)). No license exists for other forensic disciplines; R.S. 15:499(D) requires only disclosure of analyst background on request.
- Admissibility standard
- La. C.E. art. 702, as amended by Acts 2024, No. 88, effective August 1, 2024 (art. 702). An expert may testify “if the proponent demonstrates to the court that it is more likely than not that” all of (1) to (4) are met, including helpfulness in (1). That matches the 2023 change to Federal Rule 702. The comment says the amendment “does not change the law.” Article 702(B), added by Acts 2019, No. 115, bars eyewitness-memory experts where physical or scientific evidence corroborates the identification, and bars them from opining on whether a particular identification is accurate. The Louisiana Supreme Court decision adopting Daubert could not be checked from official sources on October 19, 2026.
- Post-conviction forensic relief
- No changed-science statute. Two routes. (1) DNA testing (C.Cr.P. art. 926.1): until August 31, 2030, a person convicted of a felony may apply for DNA testing of an unknown sample. The application must show an articulable doubt based on competent evidence and a reasonable likelihood that testing will “establish the innocence of the petitioner,” with a factual-innocence affidavit; otherwise the court “shall dismiss” it. Relief is barred where there is “a substantial question as to the integrity of the evidence” (D). After service of an application on the district attorney and the agency holding the evidence, clerks and agencies, including crime labs, must preserve biological evidence in cases concluded by a guilty verdict or plea as of August 15, 2001, until August 31, 2030 (H)(3). (2) Factual innocence (art. 926.2): the petitioner must present new, reliable, noncumulative evidence “not known or discoverable at or prior to trial” that is scientific, forensic, physical or nontestimonial documentary evidence, or testimony corroborated by it. It must prove by clear and convincing evidence that “no rational juror” would have convicted. Only a first claim filed by December 31, 2022 after a trial escaped the time and procedural bars of arts. 930.4 and 930.8; later claims are subject to them. A petitioner who pled guilty before August 1, 2025, or nolo contendere, must also show consistent maintenance of innocence until the plea and that the evidence could not have been discovered before it. A guilty plea on or after August 1, 2025 bars the claim. Since August 1, 2024, the art. 930.4 and 930.8 limits are jurisdictional and cannot be waived by the court or the district attorney.
- DNA database scope
- Broad arrestee collection. Anyone “arrested for a felony or other specified offense,” including attempts, conspiracies, solicitation and accessory after the fact, gives a sample at booking (R.S. 15:609(A)(1)). The same applies to juveniles arrested or adjudicated for felony-grade acts, people convicted of such offenses, interstate transfers, and homicide victims of crimes of violence. Reasonable force is authorized ((I)). Since August 1, 2026, a person who fails to give a required sample is “noncompliant,” and on notice of noncompliance from the appropriate agency the Office of Motor Vehicles must flag the driving record and withhold a license until the sample is received ((K)).
- Facial recognition
- No statute on police use of facial recognition. The term appears only in a 2020 remote-notarization definitions section (R.S. 35:622, Acts 2020, No. 254) and in C.Cr.P. art. 328, which since May 29, 2026 requires electronic bail-bond providers to use “Facial recognition liveness verification” to authenticate the licensed agent (art. 328, Acts 2026, No. 489).
Changes, 2023 to 2026
Post-conviction relief denied for a known claim not raised, even if the failure was excusable; grants stayed until final
The court must deny relief if the petitioner “failed,” rather than “inexcusably failed,” to raise a claim of which the petitioner had knowledge in the proceedings leading to conviction, or to pursue on appeal a claim raised in the trial court. If relief is granted, the judgment is stayed until the time to seek Louisiana Supreme Court review expires or that court takes final action. The bail provisions of art. 930.5 do not apply until the grant becomes final.
For practitioners: An excuse for not raising a forensic claim earlier no longer saves it from art. 930.4(B) or (C), and a client who wins relief stays in custody until the grant is final.
Statewide tracking of unresolved CODIS hits, with an annual public report
An “outstanding CODIS hit” is one not “cleared, acted upon, or resolved” within 90 days of receipt. State police must create and run a statewide tracking system as the central repository, and may contract with “public or private entities” and phase it in. Every agency that receives CODIS hit notifications, including CODIS labs, investigating agencies, district attorneys and missing-persons agencies, must give the required information and fully participate by January 1, 2027. After implementation, state police must report by March 1 each year to Senate Judiciary C, House Administration of Criminal Justice, the governor and the legislative library on outstanding, added and resolved hits, statewide and by jurisdiction, and post the report on the state police website. The act states no funding.
For practitioners: Once reports start, check whether a CODIS hit in your case sat unresolved past 90 days.
Driver’s license hold for people who owe a required DNA sample
Anyone required by law to give a DNA sample who fails to do so is “noncompliant.” On notice of noncompliance from the appropriate agency, the Office of Motor Vehicles must flag the driving record and may not issue, renew or reinstate a license until the sample is received. By January 1, 2027, state police must adopt rules to flag licenses for outstanding CODIS hits and for people who “lawfully owe the state a DNA sample in order to complete their full DNA profile.” The act enforces existing collection duties; it adds no new group that must give samples.
For practitioners: A license flag may be the first sign that the State says a client owes a sample; check the legal basis for the claimed duty.
Police drone footage admitted by certificate unless the defense demands the operator
A party may introduce footage from an unmanned aircraft system operated for a law enforcement agency by a signed certificate, without the operator’s testimony. Written notice with the certificate is due at least 45 days before trial, or 30 days in noncriminal juvenile cases. The defendant or defense counsel may demand the operator’s live testimony in writing within 30 days, or 10 in noncriminal juvenile cases; a timely demand defeats self-authentication. The court may extend the demand period for good cause, and a demand does not bar admitting the footage by other means. The article applies in criminal, juvenile, related family and civil forfeiture proceedings.
For practitioners: Calendar the demand deadline as soon as a drone footage certificate arrives.
Post-conviction overhaul; no factual-innocence claim after a guilty plea on or after August 1, 2025
Post-conviction relief is limited to people serving a sentence, or on probation or parole, who are in custody or under supervision. Petitions must be served on the Attorney General as well as the district attorney. Procedurally barred or facially frivolous claims must be dismissed after a required preliminary review. The district attorney has 60 days to respond, and no merits hearing is held if the district attorney or Attorney General files procedural objections. The State “has no burden of proof,” and the district attorney and Attorney General may suspensively appeal any grant. Post-conviction plea agreements (art. 930.10) are repealed. A petitioner who pled guilty on or after August 1, 2025 may not claim factual innocence under art. 926.2; the bar does not reach nolo contendere pleas. Art. 926.1 DNA testing is not repealed.
For practitioners: Before a client pleads guilty, note that the plea forecloses a later factual-innocence claim on new forensic evidence.
Post-conviction time and procedural bars made jurisdictional and unwaivable
The State’s power to waive procedural objections under arts. 930.4 and 930.8 is repealed. All limits in both articles are now “jurisdictional” and “shall not be waived or excused by the court or the district attorney.” The rule that a court must consider the merits when a petitioner’s failure to raise a claim earlier was excusable (former 930.4(F)) is repealed. Any supplement or amendment is subject to the same limits. An application after the first must be served on the district attorney and the Attorney General at least 60 days before the hearing, and both may suspensively appeal any grant.
For practitioners: A district attorney can no longer consent to hearing a time-barred forensic claim; factual-innocence claims filed after 2022, and DNA requests after art. 926.1 lapses in 2030, run through these limits.
Article 702 aligned with the 2023 federal amendment
The opening paragraph now requires that “the proponent demonstrates to the court that it is more likely than not that” conditions (1) to (4) are met. Condition (4) changed from “The expert has reliably applied the principles and methods” to “The expert’s opinion reflects a reliable application of the principles and methods to the facts of the case.” The 2024 comment says the amendment “does not change the law and is intended to align the language of this Article with the 2023 amendments to Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence.”
For practitioners: The comment calls the change a clarification, so expect courts to keep applying earlier Louisiana Daubert case law, now with the burden stated in the text.
Post-conviction DNA testing article and preservation duty extended to 2030
The filing cutoff for art. 926.1 DNA testing moves from August 31, 2024 to August 31, 2030. After that date, DNA requests go through the general time limits in arts. 930.4 and 930.8. The duty of clerks and law enforcement, including crime labs, to preserve biological evidence in cases concluded as of August 15, 2001 is also extended to August 31, 2030; it applies after service of an application on the district attorney and the agency holding the evidence. It also names the office of the state public defender as administrator of the DNA Testing Post-Conviction Relief for Indigents Fund.
For practitioners: File art. 926.1 applications before August 31, 2030; after that, the jurisdictional time bars apply.
DNA population database: permitted uses listed
Existing law already let state police keep a separate population database of de-identified DNA samples and let other CODIS agencies search it. The act lists the permitted uses: identification and detection in criminal investigations and disaster victim identification; population statistics; identification and protocol development; quality control; and, added by Senate floor amendment, “To reduce the rape kit backlog at the Louisiana State Police crime lab.” It also requires state police to maintain the database and makes it subject to the disclosure prohibitions in R.S. 15:617. It does not change who must give a sample.
For practitioners: Population database data is de-identified and subject to R.S. 15:617; challenge any use outside the listed purposes.
Pending bills
No bill on these topics is pending. The 2026 Regular Session has ended, and the 2027 session has not convened. The legislature’s law pages are formally updated through the 2025 First Extraordinary Session, with 2026 acts being added (law search).
Checked and unchanged
- R.S. 15:499 (certificates of analysis) was last amended by Acts 2012, No. 69, and R.S. 32:663 (DWI chemical-test permits) by Acts 2018, No. 506.
- C.Cr.P. art. 572 (DNA-identity tolling for sex-offense prosecutions): the DNA language dates from 2003. Acts 2024, 2nd Ex. Sess., No. 3 amended 572(B)(1) and (2); whether it touched the DNA clause was not checked. Acts 2026, No. 364 enacted art. 571.2 and amended art. 572(A) (to cross-reference art. 571.2) and art. 573; it did not amend art. 572(B), which still contains the DNA clause; its DNA content, if any, was not checked.
- No statute on genetic genealogy or rapid DNA was found.
- Outside this tracker’s scope: Acts 2026, No. 724 (HB 1247), approved and effective June 3, 2026, amended the sexual assault kit statutes R.S. 15:622, 15:624 and 15:624.1 and added a member to the Sexual Assault Oversight Commission. Acts 2026, No. 549 (HB 396) added C.E. art. 416, making autopsy photographs admissible in criminal proceedings from August 1, 2026.
- Not checked: the accreditation status of Louisiana crime labs.
Last updated October 19, 2026Source: United States Council for Law & InvestigationCite as: United States Council for Law & Investigation, “Louisiana forensic science oversight: Forensic Ledger,” uscli.org/forensic-science-tracker/louisiana (last updated October 19, 2026). Text licensed CC BY 4.0.