PEOPLE v. NELSON PART-I
Where 26-year delay in prosecuting defendant for murder was not the result of negligence and not for the purpose of gaining an advantage over defendant but was caused solely due to the limits of forensic technology at the time of the initial investigation, which resulted in insufficient evidence to identify defendant as a suspect, and when forensic technology in the form of a DNA databank became available to identify defendant as a candidate for further investigation and testing, defendant was charged with murder, the delay between the date of the crime and the filing of the complaint did not violate defendant's right to due process of law. DNA evidence was properly presented to the jury where the DNA databank search merely identified defendant as a possible candidate as the murderer and was not the basis for declaring that his DNA matched DNA on the evidentiary samples. The latter determination was made based on further, complete testing using scientific techniques found to be reliable and admissible.
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