The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says it has solved more than 1,500 cases because of its DNA database, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The bureau began DNA testing in 1991. Georgia began adding DNA to the FBI's national database in 1998. At that time, the database only included people convicted or charged with sex offenses. In 2000, the legislature passed a law to take DNA from all incarcerated convicted felons.
In the first year after the DNA database was expanded, the bureau solved 70 cases. Yesterday, it reported 1,511 success stories, including rapes, murders, and robberies. They include an 18-year-old rape case in Atlanta that investigators solved this week through a DNA hit. Successes include Calvin Johnson who was wrongly convicted of raping a woman 10 years ago, said Aimee Maxwell, director of the Georgia Innocence Project.