DNA can help with wrongful convicitons

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I found an article about a man that has been in prison for 35 years for something he didn't do. He was released from prison on December 17, 2009 because they used DNA do find out that it wasn't him who raped a 9-year-old boy in 1974.

http://www.newser.com/story/76448/innocent-man-free-after-35-years.html

What I don't really understand is why hadn't they used the DNA testing before on this man? They always take the fingerprints of each criminal when they go to prison, and this case could have been prevented or at least reduced in the years that the man was in prison if they would have been able to do the testing. To answer my own question, I found another article about the history of DNA testing in criminal cases that is really interesting. DNA testing has only been used in criminal cases for about 24 years, so the case with the man in prison for 35 years makes sense. They were only able to do the testing after he was in prison for a while.

http://www.ehow.com/about_5285970_history-dna-testing-criminal-cases.html

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