In Feb. 21, 1989, George Wesley was sentenced to 38 1/2 years to life in prison for the September 1987 murder of Helen Kendrick, a 79 year old developmentally disabled woman in Albany, New York. Wesley was the first person convicted of a murder through the use of DNA evidence.

The conviction was based on Kendrick DNA evidence found in a blood stain on Wesley’s shirt. In 1994, the New York State’s highest court upheld the use of DNA evidence in Wesley’s case.