In Thursday’s ruling, the justices held that “it is undisputed that the jeans were worn by [the victim] and belonged to her whether her DNA was present in the stain or not. The lack of her DNA in the stain sample can be explained by the age and possible contamination of the samples. Further, the DNA of sperm found on the victim’s vaginal swab, which was taken within hours of the rape, is concordant with the DNA of the sperm from the semen stain found on the crotch of the victim’s jeans.”

The Attorney General’s Office said the victim has not recanted her identification of Scott. Misidentification, however, is the single most common contributor in recent decades to convictions that have been proven wrongful by DNA testing across the country.

At a November hearing on the case, Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, a lawyer with the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, told the justices that science proves Scott is innocent.

“We know that because one person committed this rape,” she said. “He left his semen behind, both inside the survivor’s body and on the jeans she put on immediately after the attack.”