Evidence Preservation in Louisiana
State statute requires that all evidence in cases resulting in a death sentence be preserved until the defendant has been executed. It also requires preservation of evidence connected to all felony cases upon petition until August 31, 2019 and for all cases as of August 15, 2001 with guilty verdicts or where pleas were taken. Effective: 2001; Amended most recently: 2014.
Louisiana’s statute meets the best practices standards outlined by the NIST Technical Working Group on Biological Evidence Preservation.