Martha Bashford was for 40 years the chief of the New York County District Attorney’s Office Sex Crimes Unit, which was the first of its kind in the country. Previously she was co-chief of the Forensic Sciences/Cold Case Unit, where she examined unsolved homicide cases that might now be solvable through DNA analysis. Ms. Bashford was also co-chief of the DNA Cold Case Project, which used DNA technology to investigate and prosecute unsolved sexual assault cases. She indicted assailants identified through the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) and obtained John Doe DNA profile indictments to stop the statute of limitations where no suspect had yet been identified.

She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Ms. Bashford graduated from Barnard College in 1976 (summa cum laude) and received her J.D. degree from Yale Law School in 1979.