In a statement released on Monday, Denmark’s Director of Public Prosecutions Jan Reckendorff claimed the Attorney General’s office must review approximately 3,450 criminal convictions where DNA evidence was the decisive factor.

The Attorney General’s office discovered the potential flaw after a person was convicted with DNA evidence. However, a retest of the DNA provided different results. The person was likely innocent of the crime.

The cause of the potential errors can be traced back to the use of two separate machines. The machine to analyze a person’s DNA is different from the one used to analyze the scene. All of the cases that will be reviewed are from October 2011 forward.

Further, the Attorney General’s office identified 3,540 cases affecting 3,430 people. However, Reckendorff stated:

[T]he Attorney General at the same time cannot deny that there could be more cases where a supplementary study of 16 DNA systems could make a difference in the guilt assessment. . .. The review should identify cases where sentencing occurred and where DNA the evidence is included as a premise for the conviction

Reckendorff stated the National Police and the Attorney General’s office plan to discuss “the possibilities to implement if necessary the studies on upgrading the DNA profiles in practice.”