Sunday, March 28, 2010

Faulty Forensics

The case of David Kofoed feeds directly into horror our family has faced these last few years. Kofoed was the Director of CSI for Douglas County, Nebraska. Last week Kofoed was convicted of planting blood evidence to be used against the suspect in a murder case. The Associated Press reports that a flood of appeals is expected on the heals of Kofoed's conviction.

With David Kofoed's conviction the list grows of cases where forensic agencies have been caught doctoring evidence. In part, the federal government has tried to address this problem through the Coverdell Forensic Improvement program, which requires any forensic agency that receives funding under Coverdell grants to investigate allegations of negligence or abuse.

We filed a Coverdell allegation in May of last year, an allegation we've made available online. Followers of Bearing False Witness know that evidence altered by state authorities was central to Todd's wrongful conviction. Although the allegation was filed almost a year ago, and although the National Institute of Justice has sent additional queries to Colorado authorities, we have so far not even received an acknowledgement from those responsible for investigating the allegation.