When Forest â??Woodyâ? Shomberg was freed Nov. 13, he became the ninth Wisconsin prisoner whose conviction was overturned at least in part on the strength of DNA test results, according to a review of the stateâ??s online court database and cases examined by the Wisconsin State Journal and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism. To date, about one-third of the post-conviction DNA testing in Wisconsin has resulted in a conviction being overturned, the review found, with several cases still pending. That number could increase as the Wisconsin Innocence Project embarks next year on an 18-month, $647,000 federally funded project to identify potential DNA exoneration cases and officials scramble to collect DNA profiles from 12,000 convicted felons discovered missing this fall from the stateâ??s database.
Office of Strategic Communication