RICHMOND, Va. --

Prompted by DNA testing in recent years, authorities in Norfolk and Carroll County are investigating several possible wrongful convictions from decades ago.

The Virginia Department of Forensic Science has disclosed DNA test results for more than 70 people in which testing of biological evidence discovered in forensic case files from 1973 to 1988 failed to identify the convicted person.

The test reports were released in response to Freedom of Information Act requests from the news media and the Innocence Project made possible as of July 1 by special legislation passed by the General Assembly this year.

Failure to identify a convicted person's DNA in evidence, primarily blood and semen, can be consistent with and even prove innocence, or it may mean nothing.

As permitted by the legislation, two commonwealth's attorneys are withholding four DNA reports involving five people four in Norfolk and one in Carroll County deemed critical to ongoing criminal investigations, the department said.

But Amanda M. Howie, a spokeswoman for Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney Gregory D. Underwood, said that of 11 DNA reports sent to Norfolk for consideration, they objected to the release of four concerning three individuals and two cases.

"Our objection is appropriate as our legal review of the original circumstances of each case associated with the (reports) is still ongoing," Howie wrote in an email.

She said that in every case sent to her office, "a thorough, routine process is followed to determine what, if any, legal impact the testing and resulting (report) has on the case."

The Commonwealth's Attorney's Office in Carroll did not return calls for comment Friday. Other investigations in the roughly three dozen jurisdictions with exclusion cases may be in progress as well.

Originally posted here:
DNA tests prompt investigations of possible wrongful convictions