Innocence Project calls for evidence reforms in Colorado

Innocence Project Policy Analyst Rebecca Brown told Colorado’s DNA task force yesterday that state evidence preservation standards are vital to ensuring fair justice in criminal cases.

Brown stressed that any new effort to reform Colorado's statute also could aim to protect cold-case evidence, alluding to recent discoveries that crucial materials have been lost in dozens of unsolved cases.

"It's an incredible waste" of criminal justice resources, Brown said, to see crime-scene items lost or destroyed.

Most panel members – the vast majority appointed by Gov. Bill Ritter boast backgrounds in law enforcement – reached a consensus that uniform standards should be pursued.

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In an Innocence Blog dispatch yesterday, Brown wrote that “none of the 208 people exonerated by DNA testing would be where they are today if evidence in their cases had been lost or destroyed.”

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