Mississippi
Mississippi has no forensic science commission and no statute requiring lab accreditation. Since December 1, 2023 the Mississippi Forensics Laboratory must test sexual assault kits within 60 days of receipt, and a 12-member task force sets kit policy. DNA is taken at booking from people arrested for crimes of violence. Since July 1, 2026 many late or successive post-conviction motions, including DNA-testing motions, need Supreme Court leave before filing.
- Sources checked
- Part of
- Forensic Ledger
At a glance
- Oversight body
- No forensic science commission. The Mississippi Forensics Laboratory “shall be funded separately from the Department of Public Safety” (Miss. Code 45-1-29(1), as brought forward in 2026 HB 1718, which died). Since July 1, 2023 a 12-member Sexual Assault Evidence Accountability Task Force, which includes the Laboratory’s director, exists “for the purpose of developing and approving standardized policies and procedures concerning the sexual assault evidence collection kit” (2023 HB 485, § 4).
- Lab accreditation
- No statute found requiring accreditation, in the code sections reproduced in 2023 to 2026 bills. The Mississippi Code is hosted by LexisNexis and could not be searched. The Laboratory’s own Biosciences page refers to “Our accredited forensic science services” without naming the accrediting body (Biosciences).
- Analyst licensing
- Chemical-test permits only. A breath, blood or urine analysis is valid only if done by methods approved by the Laboratory and the Commissioner of Public Safety “and performed by an individual possessing a valid permit issued by the Mississippi Forensics Laboratory.” The Laboratory may “ascertain the qualifications and competence of individuals” and revoke permits, and must test breath instruments at least quarterly (Miss. Code 63-11-19, as amended by 2023 SB 2297). No general forensic analyst license exists.
- Admissibility standard
- M.R.E. 702 uses the 2000 federal text: helpfulness, sufficient facts or data, reliable principles and methods, and reliable application. It was “Amended effective May 29, 2003 to clarify the gatekeeping responsibilities of the court” and restyled effective July 1, 2016; the Advisory Committee Note ties the 2003 change to Daubert and Kumho (Rules of Evidence, April 7, 2025). The 2025 amendments reached Rules 706, 803, 804 and 807, not 702. Mississippi has not adopted the 2023 change to Federal Rule 702.
- Post-conviction forensic relief
- No changed-science statute. DNA only: a motion may rest on biological evidence not tested, or that “can be subjected to additional DNA testing,” that would “demonstrate by reasonable probability that the petitioner would not have been convicted or would have received a lesser sentence” (Miss. Code 99-39-5(1)(f)). Such claims are excepted from the three-year limit, even after a guilty plea or confession (99-39-5(2)(a)(ii); text as brought forward in 2024 HB 1459, which died). A general newly discovered evidence ground also exists (99-39-5(1)(e)). Since July 1, 2026, 99-39-7 requires Supreme Court leave before filing in more cases (see changes).
- DNA database scope
- Arrestee-based for crimes of violence. Every person arrested for the commission or attempted commission of “a crime of violence as defined in Section 97-3-2” must give a sample at booking (Miss. Code 45-47-1(1), shown in 2023 HB 412, which would have changed this to any felony and died). As reproduced in 2023 SB 2261 (which also died), 97-3-2(1) lists felony DUI under 63-11-30(5) and (12)(d), murder and attempted murder, aggravated assault, manslaughter, killing an unborn child, kidnapping, human trafficking, poisoning, rape, robbery, sexual battery, drive-by shooting or bombing, carjacking, felonious neglect, abuse or battery of a child, burglary of a dwelling, use of explosives or weapons of mass destruction, statutory rape (rebuttable on a judge’s hearing), exploitation of a child, gratification of lust, and shooting into a dwelling. Amendments to 97-3-2 after 2023 were not checked, and no 2023 to 2026 enacted measure amended 45-47-1. A court may order the sample destroyed after dismissal, acquittal, no charge within the limitations period, or three years without conviction or active prosecution (45-47-1(2)(b)). The Laboratory says its Convicted Offender index holds “DNA profiles of individuals convicted of felony offenses” (Biosciences); the statute for convicted-offender collection was not located.
- Facial recognition
- No statute found, and no 2023 to 2026 measure title refers to facial recognition. 2023 HB 467 (Biometric Identifiers Privacy Act) died in committee on January 31, 2023.
Changes, 2023 to 2026
Post-conviction motions need Supreme Court leave after an affirmed denial or after three years
A post-conviction motion must first go to a quorum of Supreme Court Justices, with leave obtained before filing in the trial court, in two added situations: where the denial of an earlier post-conviction motion was affirmed or dismissed on appeal, and where “more than three (3) years after the time for taking an appeal from the judgment or conviction has elapsed.” Before, leave was required only where the conviction was affirmed or the appeal dismissed. The act does not mention DNA, but it applies to every motion under the article, including DNA-based motions under 99-39-5(1)(f).
For practitioners: A DNA-testing motion filed more than three years after the appeal period now goes to the Supreme Court first; build the leave application into the timeline.
Sexual assault victims: written kit policies, 60-day destruction notice, hospital exam capacity
Victims gain the rights to be told in writing of policies on collecting and preserving kits, and to be told of these rights (99-51-3(3)(d), (e)). The notice an agency must give before destroying a kit or other evidence from an unsolved case is extended from 20 to 60 days. The 20-year minimum retention, or until a minor victim turns 40, was already law (99-51-3(5)). New § 2: every licensed hospital with an emergency department must have at least one physician, advanced practice registered nurse, physician assistant or registered nurse available at all times to do sexual assault forensic exams. Hospitals must also screen and treat victims and keep enough kits, and they may contract with forensic nurses.
For practitioners: Before kit evidence in an unsolved case is destroyed, the victim must now get 60 days’ notice; lab testing deadlines are unchanged.
Sexual assault kits: pickup, delivery and 60-day lab testing deadlines, CODIS entry, and an accountability task force
Medical facilities must call law enforcement within 4 hours of finishing an exam and refrigerate kits “in conformity with the Scientific Working Group for DNA Analysis Method.” Law enforcement must collect a kit within 24 hours and deliver it to the Mississippi Forensics Laboratory within 7 calendar days; kits from another jurisdiction go to the proper agency within 10 days. The Laboratory “shall test sexual assault evidence collection kits within sixty (60) days of receipt,” using methods suitable for STR analysis. Eligible profiles go into CODIS and state or local databases, and the average completion time for foreign-profile analysis “should not exceed ninety (90) days.” The Laboratory may contract out testing. Section 2 gives victims notification rights. Section 3 directs the Laboratory, with the task force and the Department of Public Safety, to study a statewide kit tracking system; it sets a report date of July 1, 2024 and also says the report is due within 12 months of the section’s effective date. Section 4 creates the 12-member Sexual Assault Evidence Accountability Task Force. Section 5 redefines “Profile” in 99-49-1 as “an autosomal, Y chromosome, or mitochondrial DNA profile generated from an individual.”
For practitioners: Check the kit’s chain of custody against the 24-hour, 7-day and 60-day deadlines.
Forensics Laboratory must approve at least one readily available breath-alcohol instrument
Adds to 63-11-19: “Without compromising accepted law enforcement standards and methodologies, the Mississippi Forensics Laboratory shall approve for use at least one (1) model of a breath alcohol content instrument that is readily available to law enforcement agencies throughout the state.” The methods approval, analyst permits and quarterly instrument testing in 63-11-19 are unchanged. The act also raised pay for a natural gas district board, an unrelated change.
For practitioners: Confirm the instrument model used was on the Laboratory’s approved list and had its quarterly test.
Pending bills
No bill on these topics is pending. The 2026 Regular Session has ended; the all-measures report was last updated June 22, 2026 (2026 all-measures report). Measures that did not become law:
- HB 412 (2023) would have extended arrestee DNA to any felony. It passed the House and died in Senate committee on February 28, 2023.
- HB 692 (2024), HB 1033 (2025) and HB 945 (2026) would each have excepted DNA-testing requests from the successive-motion bar. All died in committee (March 5, 2024; February 4, 2025; February 3, 2026).
- HB 1298 (2025), on kit-use reports to the Attorney General, died on the House calendar on February 13, 2025. SB 2884 (2025), an annual kit inventory and public report, died in committee on February 4, 2025.
- SB 2789 (2026), the DNA Match Notification, Tracking, and Accountability Act, and HB 1718 (2026), a DeSoto County Regional Forensics Laboratory, died in committee on February 3, 2026.
- HB 1932 (2024), a DeSoto County Rapid DNA appropriation, died March 27, 2024. HB 286 (2024), no limitations period for sexual battery when DNA is found, died April 2, 2024.
Checked and unchanged
- M.R.E. 702: last amended 2003, restyled 2016.
- Miss. Code 99-39-5(1)(f) and (2)(a)(ii) (DNA-based post-conviction grounds and the limitations exception), as brought forward in 2024 HB 1459.
- Miss. Code 45-47-1 (arrestee DNA): no 2023 to 2026 enacted measure amended it. Miss. Code 45-1-29 (Laboratory funding and fees), as brought forward in 2026 HB 1718.
- Not found: the statute for convicted-offender DNA collection; any statute on investigative genetic genealogy, Rapid DNA or digital forensics standards; whether the HB 485 tracking-system report was issued or the task force has met. The Mississippi Code is hosted by LexisNexis and could not be read; code text here comes from bills that reproduce the sections.
Last updated October 20, 2026Source: United States Council for Law & InvestigationCite as: United States Council for Law & Investigation, “Mississippi forensic science oversight: Forensic Ledger,” uscli.org/forensic-science-tracker/mississippi (last updated October 20, 2026). Text licensed CC BY 4.0.