Focusing public attention on emerging privacy and civil
liberties issues  District Attorney's Office v. Osborne  Post-
conviction access to genetic evidence  Top News    •
Introduction      William G. Osborne was convicted in the
Alaskan State Court in 1994 of kidnapping and raping a
prostitute and sentenced to 26 years in prison. The prosecution
relied on DNA evidence to convict him. Now, Osborne is seeking
access to DNA evidence uncovered at the time of his trial to
prove his innocence.      Procedural History      Osborne was
convicted on the basis of testimony of the victim as well as
then used "DQ Alpha" DNA tests. The more discriminating "RFLP"
method was waived by the defense counsel at the time of trial.
Over the years, testing methods have improved significantly and
methods like STR and mtDNA that were not available at the time
of Osborne's trial can now match identity of a perpetrator down
to a virtual certainty. Osborne filed an application for post-
conviction relief before the Superior Court on, in