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Advisory opinion request regarding whether the Code of Governmental Ethics would prohibit the use of the North Louisiana Criminalistics Laboratory's facilities and equipment by an expert witness in post-conviction litigation stemming from a capitol murder case. Assistant District Attorney Williams's provided that the defense team would like to have an independent expert from Indiana examine the pistol, bullet, and cartridge casings that were admitted into evidence at the trial and perform his own analysis. Prior to trial, the same type of analysis was performed by an analyst of the North Louisiana Criminalistics Laboratory. The defense team has offered to send the evidence to the expert in Indiana by Federal Express. Ms. Williams has concerns about the chain of custody if the evidence was to be shipped by common carrier. An alternative was proposed to allow the expert to conduct his testing at the North Louisiana Criminalistics Laboratory; however, the Director of North Louisiana Criminalistics Laboratory raised a question as to whether it was an appropriate use of public resources.
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