Earnest White, who had served a life sentence since 1996 for aggravated assault, burglary, and kidnapping, sought DNA testing of workout pants worn by the victim. Georgia’s statute permits a convicted person to request testing when the identity of the perpetrator was a significant issue and other statutory requirements are met. The trial court denied the motion after finding that nearly twenty years of storage in uncontrolled heat, humidity, and light likely altered the biological material. The Georgia Court of Appeals vacated and remanded. It held that the trial court had applied an improper legal standard when evaluating whether the evidence remained available for testing and whether its chain of custody was adequate. The statute required the court to assume that properly requested testing would produce valid results when deciding whether there was a reasonable probability of a different verdict, and Georgia law did not place an initial burden on the petitioner to prove that biological material had not degraded. The appellate court authorized a new hearing so the parties could address the statutory factors and the possible effect of the requested test.