SUB-HEADING: "Public scandals compel Colorado lawmakers to intervene | ANALYSIS."
GIST: "For the second year in a row, the Colorado legislature intervened to tackle scandals that many said have shaken the public's faith in state institutions and industries.
In 2025, lawmakers passed three new laws aimed squarely at controversies surrounding the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Last year, state lawmakers worked on regulations around who could work in the funeral industry.
This year’s bills are all tied to the misconduct allegations against Yvonne Woods, a nearly 30-year employee of the investigation lab accused of deleting data and manipulating DNA evidence in more than 1,000 instances.
Those errors are estimated to have cost CBI more than $11 million. Woods has since been indicted on 102 felony charges.
As the repercussions continue to mount, the conviction of a man in Boulder County was vacated after a retest of evidence by an independent lab in Virginia. The man had been arrested and convicted years after a 1994 murder in large part on the strength of a DNA analysis by Woods. His case was not among the 1,000 "anomalies" that CBI identified, leading some to speculate that the problem implicates many more.
Just before the close of the 120-day session, the legislature passed Senate Bill 304, which focuses on a backlog of rape kits. Under the proposal, rape kit testing will now be under the direction of the Department of Law.
SB 304, which awaits Gov. Jared Polis’ signature, also establishes a "Sexual Assault Forensic Medical Evidence Review Board" within the Department of Law.
The board would be charged with "reviewing and monitoring the effectiveness of current protocols, standards, and training practices in the criminal legal system response to sexual assault." It would also be required to make victim-centered recommendations to the General Assembly by Nov. 1, 2026 on improvements under the federal Violence Against Women Act of 1994.
The bill initially called for $150,000 to fund a sexual assault kit coordinator. However, the funding was stripped against the backdrop of a $1.2 billion budget deficit.
Under SB 304, law enforcement must notify a victim at least every 90 days if the agency has not received the test kit results. The bill also requires an accredited crime lab to analyze those kits within 60 days of receipt.
Lawmakers approved two other bills to address the CBI scandal.
SB 170, sponsored by the Joint Budget Committee, allows the bureau to roll over existing funds to hire third-party labs to continue to process the growing backlog of rape test kits. Polis signed the measure into law on March 26.
HB 1275, which also awaits the governor’s signature, requires crime lab employees to report wrongful actions and an investigation by the lab director. It also creates a process for individuals to seek post-conviction relief if their case is implicated.
Scandal hit funeral industry in 2024
Fremont County Coroner Randy Keller, left, and other authorities survey an area Saturday where they planned to put up tents at the Return to Nature Funeral Home where more than 115 bodies were improperly stored in Penrose.
Parker Seibold, Denver Gazette
The CBI scandal comes a year after problems in the funeral industry surfaced, which some attributed to Colorado being one of the only states in the nation not to require licensing in the industry.
In 2024, the state legislature passed Senate Bill 173, which requires licensing for funeral home directors, mortuary science practitioners, embalmers, cremationists and natural reductionists.
The bill also mandates current practitioners to obtain a provisional license.
In Penrose, some 200 bodies were left to decompose at the Return to Nature funeral home. The couple who owned the funeral home face a slew of federal charges.
In Denver, the cremains of 30 people, plus the body of a woman left in a hearse for two years, were tied to another operator whose license had also expired
Years before, a mother and daughter in Montrose who owned a funeral home are both serving time in federal prison for selling body parts."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.coloradopolitics.com/denver-gazette/co-legislature-addresses-public-scandals/article_4d94246b-531a-4ca5-88a1-d541788a6976.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
———————————————————————————————
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
—————————————————————————————————
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
