Prosecutors are investigating four decades-old cases in which DNA was recovered that could lead to the exoneration of five individuals.
Under a law that took effect on Sunday, the Virginia Department of Forensic Science disclosed the DNA results of more than 70 persons convicted of crimes in which the old biological evidence retained in their files did not match their DNA.
The law allowed the department to withhold results if prosecutors said it was critical to an ongoing investigation.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports (http://bit.ly/OAavEY ) that authorities in Norfolk and Carroll County withheld four tests implicating five individuals in various crimes.
There already have been 10 DNA exonerations in Virginia as a result of testing done on evidence saved in cases from 1973 to 1988, before DNA testing was used.
