People v. Nelson

In 2002, investigators compared evidence from a 1976 murder scene with defendant’s deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) profile and identified defendant as a possible donor of that evidence. He was then tried for and convicted of that murder. The prosecution presented evidence that the odds that a random person unrelated to defendant from the population group that produced odds most favorable to him could have fit the profile of some of the crime scene evidence are one in 930 sextillion (93 followed by 22 zeros). Because the world’s total population is only about seven billion (seven followed by nine zeros), this evidence is tantamount to saying that defendant left the evidence at the crime scene. We granted review to decide issues arising from prosecutions following such DNA “cold hits” many years after the crime.

We conclude that the justification for the delay in charging defendant with this 1976 crime—he was not charged until further investigation, specifically the DNA testing in 2002, provided strong new evidence of his guilt— outweighed the prejudice defendant suffered from the delay. Accordingly, the delay did not violate defendant’s constitutional rights to a fair trial…