Digital Evidence Review Unit (DERU)
A Digital-Evidence Readiness Partnership for Public Defender Offices
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Build digital evidence into the defense from day one—from investigation and litigation through post-conviction review.
The Digital Evidence Review Unit (DERU) is the Digital Innocence Initiative’s public defender office partnership pathway.
A public defender office or agency joins DII by enrolling as a DERU partner. DERU partners also become members of the Digital Innocence Coalition, connecting participating public defender offices and defense professionals working with digital evidence.
DERU provides practical, defense-oriented resources that help offices recognize and address digital-evidence issues through their existing structure. It does not require a separate department, forensic laboratory, specialized equipment, or full-time examiner.
Enroll Your Office as a DERU Partner →
Request a DERU Leadership Briefing →
Explore the Digital Evidence Toolbox →
Why Digital-Evidence Readiness Matters
Digital evidence may affect identity, location, communications, intent, credibility, and the sequence of events. It may also reveal information that was never collected, was misunderstood, or could be lost before the defense knows to request it.
Surveillance footage may be overwritten. Provider records may be retained for limited periods. Online content can change or disappear. Device activity may alter recoverable data. By the time conventional discovery review is complete, important evidence may already be unavailable.
Public defenders cannot assume that law enforcement identified, collected, preserved, examined, or disclosed every relevant digital source. The defense must be prepared to conduct an early and independent review.
DERU gives an office a common starting point: practical resources for recognizing digital-evidence issues, taking timely action, asking better questions, and identifying when qualified technical assistance may be necessary.
What DERU Is
DERU is a free readiness-level partnership that helps a public defender office establish a practical starting point and repeatable process for recognizing and addressing digital-evidence issues.
An office can begin with one person, one case, and its existing resources. DERU materials can support attorneys, investigators, leadership, appellate and post-conviction teams, trainers, and litigation-support personnel without requiring every participant to become a forensic examiner.
DERU helps offices:
- Introduce early digital-evidence case assessment.
- Identify time-sensitive, missing, and overlooked evidence.
- Recognize preservation, retention, discovery, collection, and documentation needs.
- Use Digital Evidence Toolbox resources and recognized best practices.
- Evaluate what law enforcement collected and identify potential gaps.
- Identify devices, accounts, providers, records, and other potential digital-evidence sources.
- Improve communication among trial, investigative, appellate, and post-conviction teams.
- Apply structured review principles to appropriate post-conviction cases.
- Recognize when qualified forensic or technical assistance is needed.
- Participate in shared learning with other DERU partner offices.
The goal is not to turn attorneys or investigators into forensic examiners. The goal is to help defense professionals recognize digital-evidence issues, take timely action, ask better questions, and identify when qualified technical assistance may be necessary.
What DERU Provides
Verified DERU partner offices receive an immediate-start resource set designed for use within their existing structure.
DERU Executive Summary
A concise leadership overview of the partnership, its purpose, benefits, resources, and role in strengthening office readiness.
DERU Roadmap
A practical guide for introducing the materials across leadership, attorney, investigative, appellate, post-conviction, training, and litigation-support functions.
Digital Evidence Case Assessment Checklist
A repeatable starting point for identifying, mapping, and prioritizing potential digital evidence, missing material, preservation concerns, discovery needs, and practical next steps.
Time-Sensitive Digital Evidence Guide
Guidance for recognizing evidence at risk of overwrite, deletion, short retention, or other loss and prioritizing appropriate action.
Post-Conviction Digital-Evidence Review Checklist
Structured screening criteria for identifying older cases that may warrant closer review because digital evidence was material, incomplete, misunderstood, unavailable, or never independently examined.
Post-Conviction Digital-Evidence Technical Guide
Guidance for examining the completeness, accessibility, methods, limitations, and potential present-day value of the original digital-evidence record, including surviving evidence and possible recovery or analysis options.
Digital Evidence Toolbox Access
Access to practical case-assessment, provider, retention, preservation, discovery, standards, best-practices, and digital-forensic resources.
Explore the Digital Evidence Toolbox →
Digital Innocence Coalition Participation
DERU partners also become members of the Digital Innocence Coalition. Authorized participants may receive access to the Coalition listserv for resource updates, general discussion, and shared learning, subject to applicable participation and use requirements.
Learn About the Digital Innocence Coalition Listserv →
How DERU Can Support an Office
DERU is designed to work through existing office functions rather than requiring a new organizational structure.
Leadership can use the Executive Summary and Roadmap to understand the partnership and determine how resources fit existing office functions and policies.
Trial attorneys can use the Case Assessment Checklist and Toolbox resources to recognize digital-evidence issues, identify missing discovery, and locate relevant legal or technical guidance.
Investigators can use the resources to identify devices, accounts, providers, records, preservation needs, and investigative next steps.
Appellate and post-conviction teams can use the structured review resources to examine the original digital-evidence record, earlier litigation, surviving evidence, and potential technical or evidentiary gaps.
Training and litigation-support personnel can introduce readiness resources and support consistent office practices.
An office may coordinate DERU through an existing role, share responsibility across several functions, or develop a more formal internal capability. The partnership does not require every office to adopt the same structure.
Who DERU Is For
DERU partnership is intended for eligible public defender and approved indigent-defense offices and organizations, including:
- State and local public defender offices
- Federal defender organizations
- Appellate and post-conviction public defender offices
- Assigned-counsel or indigent-defense organizations with an institutional public-defense function
- Approved public-defense training or support organizations participating on behalf of eligible offices
An office may identify appropriate attorneys, investigators, leadership, appellate and post-conviction personnel, training staff, and litigation-support personnel for participation.
Individual defense professionals who are not enrolling a public defender office may use the Digital Evidence Toolbox registration pathway.
Access the Digital Evidence Toolbox →
What DERU Does Not Require
DERU partnership does not require:
- A separate department, formal internal unit, or forensic laboratory
- A full-time forensic examiner
- Specialized forensic software or new technical equipment
- Prior advanced technical experience
- Retention of a particular technical provider
- Submission of cases, devices, records, or other evidence to DII
- Replacement of the office’s existing authority, policies, or case responsibilities
DERU provides readiness resources. Each office remains responsible for its cases, legal decisions, evidence controls, confidentiality obligations, agency policies, professional requirements, and selection of outside assistance.
Cost, Independence, and Provider Choice
The DERU readiness-level partnership, partner materials, and Toolbox access are free for eligible public defender offices.
Use of DERU resources does not require an office to retain DII or any particular consultant, forensic laboratory, expert, or technical-services provider.
Case-specific forensic examinations, consulting, training, or other technical services are separate from the DERU partnership and may involve fees.
Each office remains responsible for selecting qualified assistance under its own policies and procedures.
DERU and the Digital Innocence Coalition
A public defender office joins the Digital Innocence Initiative by enrolling as a DERU partner. DERU partners also become members of the Digital Innocence Coalition.
The Coalition connects participating public defender offices and defense professionals working with digital evidence.
Eligible participants may receive access to the Coalition listserv for general discussion, resource updates, and shared learning.
Learn About the Digital Innocence Coalition Listserv →
The Coalition page provides the separate participation, confidentiality, and acceptable-use information for the listserv.
Post-Conviction Digital-Evidence Review
DERU includes resources specifically designed to support appellate and post-conviction teams.
The Post-Conviction Digital-Evidence Review Checklist and Technical Guide can help identify older cases in which digital evidence may have been missing, incomplete, inaccessible, misunderstood, or limited by the technology available at the time.
These resources can help teams locate surviving evidence, examine the original digital-evidence record, consider earlier technical limitations, and determine whether present-day legal or technical review may be appropriate.
Learn About Post-Conviction Digital-Evidence Review →
Frequently Asked Questions
Is DERU partnership free?
Yes. Approved DERU partner resources and applicable Coalition participation are provided without charge to verified public defender offices and authorized participants. The Digital Evidence Toolbox is also free to eligible defense professionals. Case-specific forensic examinations, consulting, training, or other technical services are separate and may involve fees.
Does our office need a forensic laboratory?
No. DERU is designed for use without a laboratory, specialized equipment, or an in-house forensic examiner.
Must DERU be a separate internal unit or department?
No. An office may use DERU resources through its existing leadership, attorney, investigative, appellate, post-conviction, training, or litigation-support functions.
Do participants need digital-forensics experience?
No prior advanced technical experience is required to begin using the partner resources. Participants should work within their qualifications and seek appropriate assistance when specialized forensic work is needed.
Does partnership require a particular provider?
No. DERU does not require an office to retain any particular company, expert, laboratory, consultant, or service provider.
Does the office have to submit cases or evidence to DII?
No. Partnership does not require an office to submit cases, devices, records, or other evidence to the Digital Innocence Initiative.
Can DERU support post-conviction work?
Yes. DERU includes structured post-conviction screening and technical resources for cases in which digital evidence may warrant renewed legal or technical review.
Enroll Your Office as a DERU Partner
This page provides the DERU program overview. The actual enrollment, verification, and access process is handled through the Digital Evidence Toolbox.
An authorized public defender office representative can begin the enrollment process there.
Enroll Your Office as a DERU Partner →