FORT MADISON, Iowa (AP) — A judge has ordered DNA testing on a hat left at the scene of a fatal 1976 shooting that an Iowa inmate hopes will prove he has been wrongly imprisoned for decades. Judge John Wright ordered the hunting cap shipped to a Virginia laboratory for testing that could show whether Gentric Hicks or someone else was responsible for killing 28-year-old Jerry Foster at a Fort Madison motel.

Scientists will seek to extract genetic material from inside the cap to create a DNA profile that could be compared to Hicks. Results from the Bode Cellmark laboratory could be available in coming months. Iowa has never had an inmate exonerated by DNA evidence.