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Virginia Crime Lab Will Re-Test DNA Samples from Old Cases

Additional DNA testing for possibly 400 Virginia cases may be required to validate the results of a groundbreaking project aimed at clearing people wrongly convicted of crimes decades ago. The Virginia Forensic Science Board recently learned that retesting is necessary because the outside laboratory that performed the initial work did not "consume" all of each sample to get the best results possible.

The Department of Forensic Science has already spent $1.4 million since 2005 for wages and for testing in more than 300 cases. The testing was ordered by former Governor Mark Warner after DNA testing of biological material found in a sample selection of 31 old forensic case files cleared two men of rapes for which they were wrongly convicted. DNA testing was not available at the time they were convicted.

A spokesperson for the Department of Forensic Science said that of the 406 cases for which there are preliminary DNA test results, the department's staff has thus far produced certificates of analysis in 91 cases. Of the results studied, in 10 cases, the convicted person was excluded -- but not necessarily cleared. In 25 cases, the convicted person's DNA was identified, and in 33 cases, there was insufficient data to reach a conclusion.

So far, one person has been pardoned, and another is seeking a writ of actual innocence from the Virginia Supreme Court.

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