Ohio inmates released without giving DNA samples

CLEVELAND (AP) — Officials have acknowledged that they may never know how many people were released from Ohio prisons without having their DNA entered into databases that could help link them to other crimes.

More than 300 offenders were identified in 2012 as not having DNA on file with the state and needing resampling, according to the attorney general’s office. And that includes only the ones who were in prison or on parole when officials began trying to figure out whose DNA was missing, The Plain Dealer newspaper of Cleveland reported Tuesday.

Some of those offenders remain incarcerated, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

State law requires that DNA be collected from felons, and law enforcement agencies say it increasingly is allowing them to solve more crimes. The samples can help them put a name to DNA evidence collected at crime scenes or link together multiple crimes by the same person.