# Nevada

Nevada has no forensic science commission, no general lab accreditation mandate and no general analyst license; the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office forensic division oversees the State DNA Database. A person convicted of a felony may petition for a finding of factual innocence on forensic science that new research has undermined, but must prove innocence by clear and convincing evidence. Since October 2023, survivors’ DNA profiles may not go into DNA databases, and since January 2024, certified blood and urine testing methods are presumed reliable. Since 2025, coroners must test crash victims for commonly misused drugs, and a standing committee oversees sexual assault kit tracking.

Source: https://uscli.org/forensic-science-tracker/nevada

## At a glance

- **Oversight body:** No forensic science commission. The Forensic Science Division of the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office “shall oversee, manage and administer the State DNA Database” ([NRS 176.09121](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-176.html)), and each county designates its DNA lab (176.0917). The Committee on Testing for Intoxication certifies breath-testing devices ([NRS 484C.610](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-484C.html)) and, since 2024, may certify devices and methods for testing blood, urine and other samples (484C.640). Since October 1, 2025, the Attorney General’s Committee on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault recommends the agency that runs the statewide sexual assault kit tracking program and reviews the program’s effectiveness ([NRS 200.3788](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-200.html)).
- **Lab accreditation:** No general mandate found. A county-designated DNA lab “must satisfy or exceed the standards for quality assurance that are established by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for participation in CODIS” ([NRS 176.0917(2)(b)](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-176.html)), and a court-selected post-conviction DNA lab must meet FBI quality-assurance standards (176.09183(3)(b)). Blood analyses of people killed in motor vehicle crashes, for alcohol and commonly misused substances, “are acceptable only if made by laboratories licensed to perform this function” ([NRS 484C.170(3)](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-484C.html)).
- **Analyst licensing:** No general license. For alcohol and drug testing of blood, urine and other samples, the Committee on Testing for Intoxication may adopt regulations requiring certification of people who calibrate or verify devices and methods, who operate them, and who examine operators; no such rule for blood or urine testing was found in NAC chapter 484C ([NRS 484C.640(1)(d)](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-484C.html)). Breath-test operators are certified by the Director of Public Safety ([NRS 50.315(1)(a)](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-050.html)). A chemist’s affidavit is admissible only from someone who “has qualified in a court of record in this State to testify as an expert witness” (50.320(1)).
- **Admissibility standard:** NRS 50.275, enacted in 1971 and not amended since: a qualified witness may testify if specialized knowledge “will assist the trier of fact” ([NRS 50.275](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-050.html)). The statute has no reliability prongs, and Nevada has not adopted the 2023 change to Federal Rule 702. Nevada Supreme Court decisions applying 50.275 to scientific evidence could not be checked from official sources on October 20, 2026.
- **Post-conviction forensic relief:** Yes, through factual-innocence petitions. Under [NRS 34.900 to 34.990](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-034.html) (2019), “newly discovered evidence” includes “relevant forensic scientific evidence ... that undermines materially forensic scientific evidence presented at trial.” Trial evidence is undermined “if new research or information exists that repudiates the foundational validity of scientific evidence or testimony or the applied validity of a scientific method or technique” (34.930(3)). Mental health expert opinion is excluded. Limits: only a person “convicted of a felony” may file, and only after the time for a new-trial motion under NRS 176.515 has passed (34.960(1)). The petitioner must prove factual innocence by clear and convincing evidence (34.970); new science alone is not enough. Relief is vacatur with an “order of factual innocence and exoneration.” Separately, a person convicted of a felony may petition for DNA testing, including retesting that “would provide results that are significantly more accurate and probative,” and may then move for a new trial without the 176.515 time limit ([NRS 176.0918 to 176.09187](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-176.html)).
- **DNA database scope:** Arrestee-based. Biological specimens are collected from people arrested for a felony ([NRS 176.09123](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-176.html)) and from people convicted of any felony, crimes against a child, sexual offenses, abuse of an older or vulnerable person, a second stalking offense, attempts or conspiracies, and certain registration failures (176.0913(4)). Destruction and purging are by written request (176.09125). Since October 1, 2023, a survivor’s DNA profile from a sexual assault kit may not go into any DNA database unless CODIS rules under 34 U.S.C. 12592(b) authorize it ([NRS 178A.265](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-178A.html)).
- **Facial recognition:** No statute on police use of facial recognition was found in NRS chapters 171, 179, 179A, 239B or 289, or in the 2023 and 2025 session laws.

## Changes, 2023 to 2026

- Oct 1, 2025 — **Sexual assault kit tracking oversight moves to a standing statutory committee** — 2025 AB 45, Stats. 2025, ch. 101, NRS 200.3788 and 228.470 · Approved May 29, 2025; effective October 1, 2025 (computed: no effective-date section, NRS 218D.330 default) — The Attorney General designates the agency that runs the statewide kit tracking program “pursuant to the recommendation of the Committee on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.” Before, the designation followed the recommendation of the Sexual Assault Kit Working Group, the statewide working group led by the Office of the Attorney General; its definition in former 200.3788(7) is deleted. The renamed committee, formerly the Committee on Domestic Violence, must also “review the effectiveness of the statewide program to track sexual assault forensic evidence kits.” The Attorney General must add to the committee a sexual assault program staff member, a medical professional with kit experience, and a justice of the peace or municipal judge, and the two survivor seats become one survivor of domestic violence and one survivor of sexual assault. Forensic labs’ duty to take part in tracking (200.3788(4)) and the semiannual reports of kit counts and lab turnaround times (200.3788(3)) are unchanged. — **For practitioners:** The committee’s reviews of the tracking program are a new place to look for kit turnaround and backlog findings. — [Stats. 2025, ch. 101](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/Statutes/83rd2025/Stats202505.html)[NRS 200.3788](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-200.html)
- Jul 1, 2025 — **Crash victims’ blood tested for commonly misused substances; licensed-lab rule extended to drug results** — 2025 AB 55, Stats. 2025, ch. 17, § 1, NRS 484C.170 · Approved May 26, 2025; effective July 1, 2025 (§ 4) — In every death from a motor vehicle crash, the coroner must have a blood sample drawn from each decedent and analyzed for alcohol “and substances which are commonly misused, as determined by the coroner or other public official.” Before, the analysis covered alcohol only. The requirement to draw the sample within 8 hours of the crash is deleted. Findings must be reported to the Department of Motor Vehicles “upon receipt of the findings,” not within 30 days after the death. The rule that analyses are “acceptable only if made by laboratories licensed to perform this function” now covers drug analyses as well as blood alcohol. — **For practitioners:** Decedent drug results from crashes since July 1, 2025 must come from a licensed lab, and a sample drawn more than 8 hours after the crash no longer breaks the statute. — [Stats. 2025, ch. 17](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/Statutes/83rd2025/Stats202501.html)[NRS 484C.170](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-484C.html)
- Jan 1, 2024 — **Committee may certify blood, urine and other-sample testing devices and methods; certified ones presumed reliable** — 2023 AB 239, Stats. 2023, ch. 507, § 8, NRS 484C.640 · Approved June 15, 2023; effective January 1, 2024 (§ 17(2)) — The Committee on Testing for Intoxication may study and recommend best practices for detecting alcohol and drugs, “determine and certify whether a device or method is accurate and reliable” for testing blood, urine or other samples, and publish a free list of certified devices and methods. Its existing regulation powers over calibration, certification of calibrators, operators and operator-examiners, and operating procedures now cover methods and other samples, not only blood and urine devices. A certified device or method “is presumed” accurate and reliable. The section “does not preclude the admission” of results from an uncertified device or method. A similar presumption already applied to breath devices (484C.610). AB 239 is an omnibus bill; only § 8 is in scope here. — **For practitioners:** The presumption is rebuttable; ask whether the lab’s blood or urine method was on the committee’s certified list, and challenge reliability either way. — [Stats. 2023, ch. 507](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/Statutes/82nd2023/Stats202328.html)[NRS 484C.640](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-484C.html)
- Oct 1, 2023 — **Survivor DNA barred from DNA databases; survivor evidence may not be used against the survivor** — 2023 SB 321, Stats. 2023, ch. 418, NRS 178A.025, 178A.265 (new), 178A.020, 178A.220, 178A.260 · Approved June 14, 2023; effective October 1, 2023 (computed: no effective-date section, NRS 218D.330 default) — A law enforcement agency or forensic lab “shall not include the DNA profile of a survivor obtained from the sexual assault forensic evidence kit of the survivor in any database,” including the State DNA Database and CODIS, unless authorized to include it in CODIS under 34 U.S.C. 12592(b) (178A.265(1)). Without a court order, or another agency’s request needed to identify or prosecute the perpetrator, an agency may not share or disclose a survivor’s biological evidence; discovery obligations are excepted (178A.265(2)). Before, forensic evidence could not be used to prosecute the survivor for a misdemeanor or controlled-substance offense. Now kit evidence and other biological evidence from the investigation may not be used to prosecute the survivor for “any crime,” to search for evidence of “any criminal offense” by the survivor, or for any purpose not directly related to the sexual assault investigation (178A.260). An uncodified section required a one-time audit of 2021 specimens and profiles, including samples that should have been collected but were not, “to the extent money is available,” with a report due January 1, 2024. Whether the audit was funded or done was not checked. — **For practitioners:** If a survivor’s kit evidence surfaces in a case against the survivor, NRS 178A.260 now bars that use for any crime. — [Stats. 2023, ch. 418](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/Statutes/82nd2023/Stats202321.html)[NRS 178A](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-178A.html)

## Pending bills

No bill on these topics is pending. The 2025 session has ended, and the 2027 session has not convened. Bills that did not become law:

- AB 473 (2025), an appropriation for a DPS forensic DNA testing program: no further action taken ([AB 473](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/NELIS/REL/83rd2025/Bill/12723/Overview)).
- AB 589 (2025), limits on obtaining, keeping or disclosing genetic information and DNA samples: vetoed by the Governor ([AB 589](https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/NELIS/REL/83rd2025/Bill/12949/Overview)).

## Checked and unchanged

- NRS 176.0911 to 176.0919 (DNA definitions, State DNA Database, arrestee collection, lab designation, post-conviction DNA testing): history notes end in 2017 or earlier.
- NRS 34.930 (forensic-science definition of newly discovered evidence): added in 2019, not amended. 2023 AB 49 changed 34.960, 34.970 and 34.990 only to use the defined term “prosecuting agency,” including in the evidence-preservation duty of 34.960(8).
- NRS 50.275: added in 1971, not amended. NRS 50.315 and 50.320: histories end in 2015 or earlier. The 2023 amendment to NRS 50.325 (SB 59, § 40) changed vessel terminology only.
- No statute on rapid DNA, investigative genetic genealogy or digital forensics labs was found in the 2023 and 2025 session laws.