The Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Saturday it had discovered errors on its database of DNA profiles used to determine the likelihood that DNA from a crime scene matches a suspect.
In a statement provided to Reuters, the FBI said 33 out of a sample of 1,100 DNA profiles from its database contained discrepancies and that the bureau was "committed to correcting the inaccurate values in a transparent manner."
The errors were mostly typographical or due to outdated technology, the FBI, the top U.S. law enforcement agency, said in the statement.
The Washington Post reported late on Friday that the errors go back more than 15 years and that the FBI believes they are unlikely to affect cases that used the database.
The FBI had notified crime labs of the errors, the Post reported.
Last month the FBI said it was addressing hair analysis errors its examiners had made before 1999, notifying defendants of the problems and ensuring "that justice is done in every instance."
(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
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