Occasionally, a convicted individual will seek to collaterally attack their conviction on the basis that DNA evidence will exonerate them and allow their conviction to be set aside. With improved scientific technology, prosecutors should proactively examine potentially problematic cases. These advances allow typing or retyping of evidentiary samples and may result in confirming the original conviction or excluding the defendant as the source of a specific piece of evidence (while keeping the original conviction intact based on other evidence), or exonerating the earlier conviction. Prosecutorial policies that address post-conviction relief enhance public trust in the integrity of the legal system.

In this topic you will learn about collaterally attacked closed cases.

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