8:30-9:15 am
Registration / Light Breakfast

9:15-9:30 am
Opening Remarks
Jenny S. Cheung & Jessica Goldthwaite Legal Aid Society DNA Unit

9:30-10:30 am
Pt. 1- Overview of Forensic Analysis
Dr. Nidhi Sheth, Legal Aid Society DNA Unit

10:30-10:45 am
Break

10:45-11:15 am
Pt. 2- Rapid DNA
Lisa Montanez, Perlmutter Center for Legali Justice at Cardozo Law

11:15-12:15 pm
Barbara Byrne Keynote Lecture Janis C. Puracal, Forensic Justice Project

12:15-1:15 pm
Lunch Break

1:15-2:05 pm
FATM Basics + Motion Strategy
Masooma Javaid, Federal Defender Arnold Levine, Legal Aid Homicide Defense Task Force

2:05-2:55 pm
Beyond Frye: Rule 403 and Firearms Admissibility
Iveliz Orellano and Celeste Addyman Law Office of Cook County Public Defender

2:55-3:20 pm
Break

3:20-4:10 pm
Laying the Foundation for Exclusion: Crossing Firearm and Toolmark Examiners
Elayna Thompson NJ Office of the Public Defender

4:10-5:15 pm
Panel Discussion
Iveliz Orellana, Elayna Thompson, Celeste Addyman

5:15 pm
Adjorn

8:30-9:00am
Registration/Light Breakfast

9:00-9:30am
Magnus Mukuro Award for Integrity in Forensic Science
Kate Philpott, Forensic Defenses Strategy

9:30-10:30am
Assessing Biological Results Given Activities
Tacha Hicks, Formation Continue UNIL-EPFL, School of Criminal Justice & Forensic Genetics Unit (CURML)

10:30-11:30am
Help v. Harm: Understanding How DNA Expert Testimony Can Contribute to Wrongful Convictions
JD Schmid, Minnesota Board of Public Defense

11:30-11:45am
Break

11:45-12:45pm
Proteomics
Dr. Donald Siegel, NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner Allison Lewis & Dr. Nidhi Sheth, Legal Aid Society DNA Unit

12:45-2:00pm
Lunch Break

2:00-3:00pm
Validation
Nathan Adams, Dr. Dan Krane Forensic Bioinformatics

3:00-3:15pm
Break

3:15-4:45pm
DNA Transfer
Natasha Jean-Baptiste, Legal Aid DNA Unit Clint Hughes, Brooklyn Defender Services

4:45pm
Closing Remarks

Celeste Addyman (she/her) is an attorney in the Homicide Task Force of the Cook County (Chicago) Public Defender. She has concentrated her practice on litigating complex forensic science issues, such as forensic DNA profiling, firearms examination, and acoustic gunshot detection, on behalf of her clients and in conjunction with trial teams. Celeste was lead counsel on People v. Jones (2023 IL App 1st 221311), a first of its kind decision on defense access to discovery from the ShotSpotter system from the Illinois Appellate Court. She was part of both teams that recently won historic victories limiting or barring forensic firearms examination to in Cook County under the Frye and I.R.E. 403 standards. In addition to her litigation practice, Celeste has lectured nationwide on defending forensic science cases and trains other lawyers on how to handle forensic evidence in their cases.

Celeste is a fifth-generation Chicagoan, born and raised on the south side. She received her undergraduate degree from DePaul University and her JD from Chicago-Kent College of Law.

Tacha Hicks is a forensic scientist, with a specialization in interpretation of evidence. Early in her career, through her PhD research on glass, she specialized in assessing forensic results given activity level propositions. She worked for three years at the former Forensic Science Service in R&D in the Physical Science department. After a postdoc in the area of DNA at the University of Lausanne, and since 2010, she delivers online interpretation courses tailored for forensic caseworkers. One of the advanced courses is specifically on evaluation of biological results given activity level propositions. She is also involved in casework as the interpretation leader at the Forensic Genetic Unit of the University Center of Legal Medicine, Lausanne – Geneva. She publishes extensively on interpretation issues, has been a member in several commissions on interpretation of forensic evidence and has been appointed by the Board of the NRGD (Netherlands) as an assessor for activity issues associated with DNA.

Clint is a Senior Supervising Forensic DNA Attorney with Brookly Defender Services (BDS). He supervises the BDS Forensic Unit. The Forensic Unit is a team of trial attorneys and specialists offering support in cases involving both digital and traditional forensic issues.

From 2020-2024, Clint served on the Expert Working Group which authored the report, Forensic DNA Interpretation and Human Factors: Improving the Practice Through a Systems Approach. He also served on the Editorial Committee of the Working Group.

Clint has spent the last 28 years as a public defender.

For the past 13 years, Clint has served as a Forensic DNA legal specialist, advising attorneys and their clients in thousands of cases involving DNA evidence.

He has also been a pro bono advisor for attorneys in state and federal courts in California, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Wisconsin on cases involving complex DNA mixture evidence and probabilistic genotyping.

He has presented to judges, forensic scientists and criminal defense attorneys on legal issues related to forensic DNA analysis.

Clint was the lead attorney of the pro bono DNA litigation team that successfully precluded the application of the DNA mixture software STRmix and the modified random match probability to DNA samples in the upstate New York murder case People v. Hillary, in 2016.

Clint was also a member of the legal team that successfully precluded use of the Forensic Statistical Tool (FST) software and low copy number (LCN) DNA testing in People v. Collins, in Brooklyn, New York in 2014.

Upon graduating from New York Law School in 1993, I began working as a trial attorney in the Manhattan Trial Office for The Legal Aid Society, Criminal Defense Division. I practiced there for 11.5 years, the last two of which I was a supervisor. I left LAS in 2004 for private practice. I was a sole proprietor, practicing in state and federal court for the next 15 years. While in private practice, I served on the First Dept. 18-B felony and homicide panels and the federal CJA panels in the SDNY and EDNY and was on the federal CJA Capital Case panel in the EDNY. In 2019, I returned to LAS to join the new Homicide Defense Task Force. I have tried about 70 cases to verdict in state and federal court, and I have briefed and argued appeals in the Appellate Division, First Department, New York Court of Appeals, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. I have also represented pro bono two Alabama death row inmates in post-conviction proceedings. I was a Board member and VP of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and I currently serve on the Board of Directors of the New York Criminal Bar Association.

Lisa Montanez is a Forensic Science Policy Advisor with the Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice at Cardozo Law (PCLJ). Her distinctive professional experience provides critical insight, offering both breadth and depth at the intersection of science, law, and public service. Lisa has held roles as a government scientist and regulatory professional, where her work was directly involved at both the state and federal level. In addition to government service, she worked as a pharmaceutical scientist in the private sector, where she developed a strong expertise in quality control testing, method validation, and laboratory investigations. Her experience across private industry and government service has been integral to her development as a respected professional, exemplified by her effective use of scientific research to inform policy and oversight work.

Prior to joining PCLJ, Lisa was a member of the Digital Forensics Unit at The Legal Aid Society of New York (LAS) and volunteered her scientific expertise to support the LAS DNA Unit. She further strengthened her scientific research skills by earning an M.S. in Forensic Science from the University of California, Davis, where her thesis focused on developing a high-resolution mass spectrometry method for the identification of fentanyl analogs. She also holds a B.A. in Criminal Justice and B.S. in Biochemistry from San Francisco State University.

Iveliz is currently assigned to the Forensic Science Division of the Cook County Public Defender’s Office. She has been with the public defender’s office for over 10 years and practiced plaintiff’s side federal civil rights litigation prior to that. Iveliz is also an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago Law School.

Janis C. Puracal is the Executive Director of the Forensic Justice Project. Ms. Puracal is a litigator with experience in trial, appellate, and post-conviction work in state and federal courts. She has encouraged decisions based on sound science in civil and criminal cases and has been instrumental in advocating for changes in the law based on developments in various fields of scientific study. Ms. Puracal was a young civil litigator when her brother, Jason, was wrongfully convicted in Nicaragua, and she became devoted to innocence work after she successfully represented Jason in an international campaign to win his exoneration and bring him home. Jason was freed in September 2012 after nearly two years in captivity. Ms. Puracal’s work included briefing in Nicaraguan and international courts, diplomatic relations in the U.S. and Nicaragua, lobbying on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., and media appearances on a national and international level, including CNN, Reuters, and The Today Show. Since Jason’s release, Ms. Puracal has continued to work with her brother to advocate for legal reform. She is a member of the Legal Task Group for the Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science, established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). She is also an adjunct professor at Lewis & Clark Law School where she teaches a course on wrongful convictions. Ms. Puracal continues to work to prevent and correct wrongful convictions through the Forensic Justice Project.

J.D. Schmid is an Assistant Public Defender in Duluth, MN. He has been practicing in public defense for 19 years. He has presented to audiences gathered by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Texas Forensic Science Commission, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the Appellate Judges Education Institute, the National Forensics College, and several different criminal defense organizations. In 2025, he received the Joe Friedberg Special Achievement Award from the Minnesota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He is also a Fellow with the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Elayna M. Thompson is a trial attorney in the Forensic Science Unit at the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender (NJOPD), where she works strategically and collaboratively with attorneys throughout the State of New Jersey to prevent unreliable forensic evidence from being admitted at trial. Her current subject matter areas include friction ridge analysis, firearm and toolmark analysis, bloodstain pattern analysis, arson, and toxicology. She also serves as a faculty member at statewide NJOPD trial attorney trainings and has lectured on topics such as opening statements, cross-examination in pretrial motion practice, and storytelling through cross. Before joining the Forensic Science Unit, Elayna was a trial attorney with NJOPD in Newark, NJ, for over a decade and had the privilege of representing thousands of clients throughout criminal trial proceedings on charges ranging from trespass to murder. She obtained innumerable acquittals, dismissals, motion victories, and other favorable outcomes reducing harm to her clients and their exposure to incarceration. At trial, she has cross-examined medical examiners, DNA analysts, serologists, SANE nurses, trauma surgeons, firearms examiners, and digital forensic experts from Apple and the FBI. She has also called and directed defense experts as well as the government’s own experts.

During law school, Elayna interned with the Public Defender Service (PDS) in Washington, D.C.; Legal Aid South Africa in Johannesburg; and Maryland’s Office of the Public Defender in Baltimore. She also tried cases as a student attorney in the Criminal Justice Institute clinical program under the supervision of former-PDS attorney, Dehlia Umunna. After law school, Elayna clerked for the Honorable Stephen H. Glickman at the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Elayna graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2012 and received her B.A. with distinction from the University of Virginia in 2009

Dr. Nidhi Sheth is a DNA Analyst at the Legal Aid Society in New York City, where she supports legal teams by reviewing and interpreting DNA evidence in criminal cases. She holds a Ph.D. in Computational and Integrative Biology from Rutgers University, where her research focused on using single-cell DNA analysis for forensic applications, and a Master’s degree in Forensic Science from Pace University. Dr. Sheth has shared her work at major forensic conferences, and her contributions have been recognized with awards, including the Best Poster Award at the International Society for Forensic Genetics Conference ( ISFG) for her advancements in DNA analysis. Her skills include performing DNA analysis and interpretation to provide clear, reliable insights for case investigations.