Ted Lagerwall

Ted Lagerwall has been a career prosecutor for over 25 years. He is currently an assistant prosecuting attorney in Canyon County, Idaho, where he has worked since he and his family moved to the Boise area in the summer of 2022. His previous experience entailed working as an assistant state’s attorney for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in Chicago, Illinois for over 24 years, where he held various positions. The vast majority of his time as a prosecutor was prosecuting murder cases in the Gang and Cold Case Homicide Unit in Chicago and southern suburbs of the city. Ted has also been a public speaker, conducting numerous trainings in various aspects of trial work.

Soon after arriving at the Canyon County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Ted Lagerwall became the lead prosecutor in a cold case prosecution involving the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl in 1982. The case had a long history, including the wrongful conviction of an innocent man sentenced to death row for over 18 years, before mitochondrial DNA evidence cleared him and led to his release in 2001. The case remained a cold case until 2020, when new and advanced DNA testing was performed on old hair evidence utilizing whole genome sequencing. This, along with other evidence, helped secure the conviction of this girl’s killer. The introduction of whole genome sequencing was used for the first time to establish identity in the United States with this case, and sets the groundwork for its use in future cases.