DNA Lab Scandal is a case that brought Queensland’s closed loop of forensic loopholes in the law of Double Jeopardy.

Brisbane, December 29 2025 – Amendments to Queensland laws on landmark legal changes to the state’s laws on double jeopardy have been passed, to eliminate a loophole in the law that is causing massive failures in the Forensic Science Queensland (FSQ) DNA laboratory. The reform guarantees that people who were previously acquitted due to committing a serious crime can be retried in case new or fixed forensic evidence is found, even in cases where prior investigations used inaccurate DNA tests.

The relocation follows a 2022 Commission of Inquiry into Forensic DNA Testing, chaired by retired judge Walter Sofronoff KC, which discovered that there were catastrophic flaws in the Queensland forensic apparatus. The investigation revealed falsified DNA tests, untested technology and institutional breakdowns of quality control that invalidated hundreds of criminal cases. Families of the victims, prosecutors and police have since been campaigning to reform, arguing that the justice system could not disregard those errors that had to do with bad science.

The previous Queensland system of double jeopardy allowed retrials in only those cases where new and compelling evidence might be established to have been undiscoverable due to reasonable diligence when the case was first tried. But the prosecutors had a big stumbling block; in case of bad forensic testing in the court, re-examinations of the same materials technically did not count as new evidence, barring retrials in a number of cases. The new law is one which eliminates that barrier. It clearly appreciates that erroneous forensic evidence due to a faulty state DNA lab does not preclude the new results from passing the fresh evidence test. This reform is an effective measure that will rehabilitate the prosecution in its quest to administer justice where injustice was involved in the past due to bad practices in the laboratories.

Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath believed the reform had enhanced a sense of faith by the people in the forensic evidence and how justice can be achieved in the event of a scientific failure. The amendment has been embraced by legal experts as a template for how to strike a balance between fairness and scientific accountability.

The government also attested to the reforms that are still going on in FSQ, such as new leadership, independent accreditation systems, and stringent audit procedures to restore credibility. Through this legislative band-aid, the justice system of Queensland makes a huge leap towards the process of harmonizing science, law and popular belief in the fact that DNA is supposed to provide.