Texas AG To Weigh In On DNA Testing Of Remains From FBISD Site

AUSTIN, TX — Officials with the Texas Historical Commission are seeking an attorney general’s opinion on whether the DNA of human remains found at a school construction site in Fort Bend County should be tested.

Mark Wolfe, executive director for the Texas Historical Commission, submitted a request for an opinion on Dec. 10 asking for clarification on whether the Texas Historical Commission has the legal authority to allow testing the DNA of 95 victims of the convict lease program.

In his letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Wolfe outlined that while there are a number of statutes that define the role of the commission, but none specifically "permit the destructive testing of human remains for research purposes."

Construction crews halted work on Fort Bend ISD’s James Reese Career and Technical Education Center after the remains of more than 20 people were found in February.

Investigators began finding more remains, and determined this was an historic and unmarked cemetery for former slaves used as forced laborers between 1870 and 1910.

Since the discovery of those remains, officials in Fort Bend ISD and the City of Sugar Land have worked to find a solution for a dignified reburial.

In October, the city and the school district OK’ed an historic inter-local agreement that allowed for the remains to at the Old Imperial Prison Farm Cemetery.

READ ALSO: Sugar Land-FBISD OK Agreement To Relocate Historic Remains

A month after that agreement, a judge halted the removal of the remains after attorney’s representing a group called the Black United Front appealed, and said that relocating the remains would jeopardize efforts to conduct DNA testing.

Now, officials with the Historical Commission are concerned that DNA testing — in an effort to determine an ancestral lineage to current residents in Fort Bend County — would destroy the remains.

Paxton is expected to make his decision early next month.

RELATED: Judge Halts Removal Of 95 Bodies From FBISD Construction Site

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Image: Courtesy Photo State of Texas

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