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Steven Downs, left, appears in the 8th District Court in Lewiston in 2019 with lawyer James Howaniec. Downs was facing extradition to Alaska to stand trial for a 1993 murder. Sun Journal file photo
Andree Kehn/Sun Journal
A supervisor at the Alaska Crime Lab testified Wednesday that in 1993, when a native Alaskan woman was raped and murdered, crime scene investigators may not have worn gloves, wouldn’t have worn masks, and cigarette smoking was routine during autopsies.
“So you want to protect talking over the evidence, touching the evidence without gloves on, because that will transfer low amounts of DNA,” Jennifer Foster said during a videoconference hearing.