Arizona v. Youngblood, 488 U.S. 51 (1988), is a United States Supreme Court case concerning the limits of Constitutional due process in criminal law.

Next, the case developed as follows: At trial, expert witnesses testified that respondent might have been completely exonerated by timely performance of tests on properly preserved semen samples.

The Arizona Court of Appeals reversed the conviction on the ground that the State had breached a constitutional duty to preserve the semen samples from the victim's body and clothing.The defendant claimed that the state disposed of potentially exculpatory evidence by not properly preserving the evidence.

[2] In 2000, on request from Youngblood's attorneys, the police department tested the degraded evidence using new, sophisticated DNA technology.

In early 2001, officials got a hit, matching the profile of Walter Cruise, who was then serving time in Texas on unrelated charges.