A Pennsylvania state Superior Court panel has ordered a new trial for a man convicted for the murder of a woman in 1979.
The Harrisburg Patriot-News reported that the attorney for Gregory Hopkins failed to prevent expert witness testimony that was not generally accepted in the forensic community, Judge Victor Stabile found Monday in overturning the third-degree murder conviction.
Pathologist Cyril Wecht testified in the 2013 trial that semen linked to Hopkins, 74, was deposited in the sheets of the victim, Janet Walsh, at the time of her killing.
It is impossible to determine when DNA is deposited on any surface, Stabile noted.
“The record demonstrates that no scientific method exists for dating DNA deposits, and that Dr. Wecht’s methodology is not generally accepted in the forensic pathology field,” Stabile wrote.
Hopkins told police at the time that he and Walsh, 23, were sexually involved.
Hopkins has been serving an 8 to 16-year sentence.