Husske v. Commonwealth

The primary issue we consider in this appeal is whether an indigent defendant has made the particularized showing necessary to require the Commonwealth, under the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment of the federal Constitution, to supply at its expense a DNA expert to assist the defendant.

I

Paul Josef Husske was convicted in a bench trial of breaking and entering with intent to commit rape and the offenses of forcible sodomy, rape, and robbery. He was sentenced as follows: 20 years’ imprisonment, suspended after serving 10 years, for breaking and entering with…