Accompanying story: The evolution of DNA testing in Nebraska

DNA profiling was first used in 1987 to convict a man in England who raped and killed two young girls.

Later the same year, the nation's first DNA exoneration involved a man named Gary Dotson, convicted in 1977 of raping a 16-year-old girl in Illinois. In 1985, the victim recanted, saying she had sex with a boyfriend and needed a story in case she got pregnant.

After months of legal wrangling, a semen stain from the girl's underwear - a sample now 10 years old - matched the DNA of the boyfriend and excluded Dotson. The courts exonerated Dotson in 1989, the same year White was convicted of the Beatrice homicide.

White had read about the case and asked his attorneys to request DNA profiling for him. They refused, White said, calling it too risky - tantamount to saying they thought he was guilty.

So in 1990, White asked the judge to grant DNA testing. The prosecution argued the 5-year-old sample would have degraded too much. The judge denied White's request.

It would take another 17 years for White to win the right to DNA testing. In 2008, the tests cleared him and five others by using biological samples now 23 years old.