Review Process

Case Selection:

Each year the Domestic Fatality Review Team will select anywhere between 2-4 cases, and reviews one case at a time. The Team only reviews cases that are closed to further prosecution and appeal. In circumstances where a case includes a homicide/suicide where no criminal prosecution took place, the Team will wait at least 1-year before considering the case for review. By allowing a 1 to 2-year buffer between the date of each homicide case and the year of the Team’s review, the Team does so with the intention of alleviating some of the emotion, tension, and trauma exposure experienced by Team members who may have had direct involvement in the case. This also allows for more open and honest discussion between Team members during each case review. 

The Project Director uses information provided by Violence Free Minnesota’s Intimate Partner Homicide Reports, homicide records from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office, news reports, and recommendations from Team members to determine which cases are brought to the Advisory Board for consideration. Once consensus is reached by the Advisory Board, a case moves through the Team’s review process.

The Team reviews a variety of cases that differ from one another based on race, location of the homicide, age, and the self-identified gender of the perpetrator. Cases reviewed by the Team often vary in range by year and are reviewed in no particular order. 

The Case Review:

After a case is selected for Team review, the Project Director sends requests for agencies to provide case documents and reviews the information. If the perpetrator was prosecuted for the crime, law enforcement and prosecution case files typically serve as the first source(s) of information, and often lead to the identification of other agency records that might be helpful in the review of each case. 

The Project Director reviews the records to develop a chronology of the case. Each confidential case chronology establishes a working timeline that includes the following information for both the perpetrator and victim: date of birth, major life events, incidents of domestic violence, contacts with various systems, the date of the domestic homicide, and events preceding the domestic homicide. Names of law enforcement, prosecutors, social workers, doctors, or other professionals involved in the case are not used.

Each Team member is responsible for completing a confidentiality agreement at the beginning of each new case. Team members will then receive a copy of the confidential case chronology in advance of case review meetings. This document serves as a primary reference point for Team members and is utilized for the duration of each case review.

As part of the Team’s review process, each source document that is used to develop the case chronology gets assigned for review by two Team members; one member from the agency or similar agency that provided the information, and another member with an outside perspective. At Team meetings, the members who reviewed each source document will report their impressions, and a series of observations are made in relation to the case and the systemic responses. 

At the end of each case review, Team members are broken into small groups to review all of the observations that have been recorded over the course of the Team’s review. Each observation is used to identify Opportunities for Intervention that may have prevented the homicide. Each group presents their findings, and each Opportunity for Intervention is included in the Team’s Annual Report. Each Team member is expected to report back to their respective agency to highlight Opportunities for Intervention identified by the Team, in order to prompt active changes to policy, practice, and procedures unique to each agency that could help in the prevention of future domestic homicides.