New York’s highest court has taken up the case of a man convicted of burglary based largely on forensic blood evidence destroyed by floodwaters from Superstorm Sandy.

Peter Austin was convicted in 2013 of two break-ins in the Bronx after his DNA was linked to blood found at the crime scene. Prosecutors were able to introduce the record of the blood-test results although the physical blood evidence had been destroyed in floodwaters.