Attorney Find Blog

Joseph Kopera, a state police ballistics expert who testified throughout the state of Maryland, reportedly committed suicide last week after defense attorneys uncovered apparent discrepancies in Kopera’s educational records.  Attorneys working with The Innocence Project were reviewing transcripts of Kopera’s past testimony when they noted that his representations regarding his degrees were inconsistent from one case to another. 

Colleagues insist that Kopera was a skilled and dedicated professional, and that with or without degrees his work was above question, but from a legal standpoint it won’t be quite that simple.  The fact that Kopera apparently perjured himself in various court appearances will undermine the credibility of his testimony, even if was qualified to make the determinations he made. 

The Baltimore County Prosecutor’s office and the U.S. Attorney for Maryland have both reportedly indicated that they would be reviewing cases in which Kopera had testified.  While Prosecuting Attorneys have been quick to attempt to limit the scope of the inquiry and to point out that the revelation that Kopera’s credentials were not as they were presented might not have any significant impact, at least one former assistant state’s attorney sees it differently, and reportedly told the Baltimore Sun that the problem “cannot be overstated”, and that prosecutors around the state would likely be dealing with the fallout for years to come.

The Maryland State Police have been notifying prosecuting attorneys and defense attorneys across the state, while

This entry was posted on Monday, March 12th, 2007 at 2:20 pm and is filed under Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.