We learnt then that it was going to be a very important, substantial tool for exonerating the innocent as well as identifying the guilty.

exonerate (v) 1: to unload; to disburden; to discharge 2: to relieve, in a moral sense, as of a charge, obligation, or load of blame resting on one; to clear of something that lies upon oppresses one, as an accusation or imputation; as, to exonerate one’s self from blame, or from the charge of avarice 3: to discharge from duty or obligation, as a bail [syn: absolve, acquit, exculpate] – source: The Observer Magazine 4.5.2003, p. 26