The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear an argument on whether courts possess a post-conviction right to DNA evidence, The New York Times reported.
The decision presents the possibility for retrying convicted criminals years after their trials.
Objections arose during an April Appeals Court case in California. A U.S. State Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco ordered Alaskan prosecutors to provide the DNA evidence used to convict William Osborne, who was accused of raping and killing a young woman, to be turned over to the court for more sophisticated testing, according to the Times.
Currently, the federal government and 44 states allow for post-conviction testing. Alaska does not, The Times reported.
-M.M.
