Basseterre, (SKNIS): Saint Kitts and Nevis has advanced a significant reform of the justice system with the introduction of the Evidence (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which modernises the legal framework governing DNA evidence while strengthening safeguards to protect fairness, privacy, and due process.
Presenting the Bill in the National Assembly today (June 11, 2026), Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, the Honourable Garth Wilkin, described the legislation as a balanced and necessary response to advancements in forensic science and modern criminal investigations.
“This Bill goes to the heart of justice,” the attorney general stated. “It asks a simple question: how should a modern justice system treat scientific evidence that can help identify the guilty, exclude the innocent, and assist the courts in discovering the truth?”
The amendments update provisions of the Evidence Act relating to DNA evidence, recognising modern scientific and statistical methods, including software-assisted DNA analysis used in complex investigations. The legislation establishes a clearer legal framework for the collection, use, disclosure, and evaluation of DNA evidence in criminal proceedings.
Attorney General Wilkin emphasised that the reforms are designed to strengthen both criminal investigations and procedural fairness.
“It modernises the law, and it strengthens fairness,” AG Wilkin said. “It gives investigators and prosecutors a clearer framework. It gives accused persons and defence counsel clearer protections. It gives the court stronger oversight. It gives experts clearer duties, and it gives the public greater confidence that DNA evidence will be obtained, used, explained, challenged, and evaluated properly.”
Among its key provisions, the Bill allows courts to authorise DNA sampling in appropriate serious cases, requires expert evidence, mandates disclosure, limits the use of DNA material, and provides protections for privacy, dignity, health, and fairness. It also introduces safeguards to ensure that any compelled DNA sampling is subject to judicial oversight, necessity, and proportionality.
Importantly, the legislation limits these powers to serious arrestable offences. A police officer may only request, and a court may only order, the taking of a bodily sample where there are reasonable grounds to suspect a person’s involvement in a serious arrestable offence and reasonable grounds to believe the sample is likely to confirm or disprove that involvement.
“This means the mechanism is reserved for serious cases,” the attorney-general explained.
The Bill defines serious arrestable offences to include indictable offences, offences punishable by imprisonment for five years or more, violent and sexual offences, firearm and weapon offences, offences involving serious damage to property, and other prescribed offences.
Attorney-General Wilkin noted that the reform reflects a broader principle that legislation must evolve alongside scientific and technological advancement.
“Modern legislation must recognise modern science, while maintaining timeless principles: fairness, due process, judicial independence, disclosure, proportionality, and the right to challenge evidence,” he said.
The Evidence (Amendment) Bill, 2026, represents an important step in ensuring that Saint Kitts and Nevis maintains a modern, effective, and fair justice system capable of meeting the challenges of present-day criminal investigations while safeguarding fundamental rights.