According to an Urban Institute study, DNA testing of physical evidence in sexual assault cases in Virginia closed between 1973 and 1987 showed that as many as 15% of convicted offenders were wrongfully convicted. Authors of the study, who looked at evidence from 634 cases, claim that previous estimates of wrongful convictions were 3% or less.
This was the first large-scale examination of a random sampling of evidence from so many convictions.
Lead researcher John Roman stated, “These findings are important not only because they highlight the scale of wrongful convictions, but also because there are hundreds of victims in Virginia — and potentially thousands throughout the United States
