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Legal Document Repository

Order on Defendant’s Motion to Suppress Re: Genetic Information (State of Idaho v. Bryan Kohberger)

Order on the defense’s motion to suppress genetic information in an Idaho quadruple homicide case that occurred in 2022. The trial court denied the defense’s motions to suppress citing no reasonable expectation of privacy in abandoned property and shared common DNA segments of a relative who uploaded their DNA into a commercial database available to consumers.
February 2025
Legal Document Repository

Tyrone Harvin v. State of Maryland (2024) Opinion

Appeals Court decision upholding admissibility of using TrueAllele®, a probabilistic genotyping software (PGS), to interpret DNA mixtures detected on items recovered during the investigation of a Maryland sexual assault case that occurred in 2018. The court’s opinion includes a helpful discussion on experts in general, as well as a discussion on the use of PGS for forensic purposes. The court also discusses the recently adopted Daubert standard in criminal cases.
September 2024
FindLaw

State of Minnesota v. Michael Carbo (2024) Opinion – Supreme Court of Minnesota

Minnesota Supreme Court ruling held that the defendant in this 1986 homicide prosecution has no reasonable expectation of privacy in semen collected at the crime scene or items discarded in a communal trash bin. However, there are concurring and dissenting opinions to the majority ruling. An additional issue addressed in this ruling pertained to the trial court improperly excluding alternative perpetrator evidence whereby the conviction was reversed and remanded for that reason.
May 2024
FindLaw

State of Minnesota v. Jerry Westrom (2024) Opinion – Supreme Court of Minnesota

Minnesota Supreme Court ruling held that the defendant in this 1993 homicide prosecution has no reasonable expectation of privacy in a discarded napkin which was retrieved by police, tested for DNA, and led to the generation of a DNA profile that was found to match with a DNA profile recovered from the crime scene.
May 2024
District Attorney’s Office, Denver, CO

People’s Response to Defense Motion to Dismiss (State of Colorado v. Hector Bencomo-Hinojos)

Prosecution’s response to the defense’s motion to dismiss a Colorado sexual homicide that occurred in 1981. The prosecution’s response addresses the defense’s due process arguments of a preindictment delay of 30 years and advances in forensic techniques that occurred since the date of the incident which enabled investigators to leverage forensic DNA analysis and the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).
November 2014