Court rules for defendants on crime lab reports

The Associated Press | June 25, 2009

[Lurking Libertarian]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court said Thursday that criminal defendants have a constitutional right to cross-examine the forensic analysts who prepare laboratory reports on illegal drugs and other evidence used at trial.

The court on Thursday ruled 5-4 for a defendant who was convicted of cocaine trafficking, partly because of crime lab analysis.

Luis Melendez-Diaz challenged lab analysis that confirmed cocaine was in plastic bags found in the car he was riding in. Rather than accept the report, Melendez-Diaz said he should be allowed to question the lab analyst about testing methods, how the evidence was preserved and other issues.

Massachusetts courts rejected his arguments.

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the high court, said Melendez-Diaz has a constitutional right to confront the lab analyst.

[snip]

The case produced unusual alliances. Scalia attracted the votes of Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter, John Paul Stevens and Clarence Thomas.

Joining Kennedy in dissent were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito and Stephen Breyer.

[Rockingham]

The issue is not as straightforward as it may seem. The previous rule was that as part of the defense case, the defense could subpoena lab techs and examine them on their work.

Now, because lab reports are subject to the confrontation clause, the techs and analysts who prepare them must appear at trial as part of the prosecution case. This increases the costs and burdens of forensic evidence and gives the defense a greater opportunity to gain an acquittal by making the nerds in the crime lab look bad or are unavailable to testify.

Other issues remain. Will the prosecution have to produce witnesses as to the manufacture, calibration, maintenance, and repair of their lab equipment so as to show it to be reliable? Will chemical reagents have to be proven up in a similar fashion?

[FreeInWV]

“I’m sorry, I do not have that dark a view of the system...”

You obviously didn’t read the link. Nor did you read the NYT story lined from there.

In your view, is it Ok that a man got convicted and sentenced to 335 years based on contrived testimony? What about the other prisoner who was pending the death penalty based on contrived evidence? Is it Ok that many people in the chain (including the FBI) knew the evidence was contrived and overlooked it because Zain was “Pro-Prosecution”?

I am glad that I do not have such a naiive view of the system.

[ExTxMarine]

I have only dealt with the police from behind a steering wheel (three times in over 25 years of driving) and when I called them out to my place for problems with others.

But, to your other post - nope I have no problem with those crooks being out. If they show up at my place, either my wife, one of my daughters or I will send them to their FINAL judgment! I have two shotguns, several rifles and several pistols at the house; all four of us know how to and when to use them!

[RobRoy]

>>Hmmm, don’t we have a Constitutional right to confront all accusers??? Why isn’t this a 9-0 decision??? Why should a lab rat be exempt from having to defend their accusations???<<

Very good question. I was wondering exactly the same thing. Heck, they got to cross examine the “lab rat” even in My Cousin Vinney!

[jessduntno]

“In your view, is it Ok that a man got convicted and sentenced to 335 years based on contrived testimony?”

No. In my view that is awful...I never said anything of the sort...any of these things look good to you?

And this is just page one of 19 results from a google of “killed on bail”. You can always find something lousy if you look for it...;

Police say illegal immigrant stabbed man while on bail - Examiner.comPolice say illegal immigrant stabbed man while on bail ... Go, Maryland, Another person could have been killed because you want to be a sanctuary state and let illegal aliens out ...

www.examiner.com/a-1302137~

Police_say_illegal_immigrant_stabbed_man_while_on_bail.html · Cached pageRecent cases put Parole Board in the spotlightBy Julie Manganis , Staff writer Gloucester Daily Times

February 26, 2007 10:02 am SALEM - Twenty years ago, Charles “Chucky” Doucette shot a man in the head and killed him. While out on bail, he committed two home invasions. In 1991, he was sentenced to seven consecutive life terms.

Doucette, 48, was released from Bridgewater State ...

- Twenty years ago, Charles “Chucky” Doucette shot a man in the head and killed him. While out on bail, he committed two home invasions.

www.gloucestertimes.com/homepage/local_story_057094636/resources_printstory · Cached page

Teen killed woman while out on bail - Youth - NZ Herald NewsA North Shore teenager who yesterday admitted the brutal murder of a North Shore pensioner was on bail at the time of the killing. The 15-year-old - who cannot be named for legal

query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9407E0D7153CE533A25756C2A9679C946095D6CFAbstracts: Gambler guilty of football sabotage. Satanic stalker killed ... Wai Yuen Liu has been found guilty in a trial relating to a soccer gambling scam in Britain. A syndicate linked to Triad gangsters has interfered with two soccer matches by turning off the floodlights so the game had to be stopped. Liu was found guilty of plotting sabotage at a soccer match involving Liverpool and Charlton Athletic in the 1998-1999 ...

stalker killed boy of 12 while out on bail ... The murder took place shortly after Crowley had been released on bail, even ...

www.faqs.org/abstracts/Retail-industry/Gambler-guilty-of-football-sabotage-Satanic... · Cached page
TheStar.com - GTA - Road rage accused free on $25,000 bail Wayne Winsor, 39, is ordered not to drive while out on bail. ... The family of a Milton man killed in an alleged road rage incident made a tearful ...

www.thestar.com/printArticle/457678 · Cached pageKatara case: HC questiones conduct of Vikas while out on bail... you got involved in another case while you were out on bail?” a bench comprising justices B D Ahmed and PK Bhasin said while hearing a bail ... Tiger killed, burnt in a cashew ...

www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1242577 · Cached pageBBC NEWS | Scotland | Man killed partner while on bail

Man killed partner while on bail ... A man who admitted murdering a woman in Clackmannanshire while he was out on bail has ...

news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/scotland/4479294.stm · Cached page

Brothers pay tribute to mother killed by police officer on bailThe sons of a woman shot dead while her son-in-law was on bail paid tribute to their mother yesterday ... talented at needlework, loved the church, and even found time to help out ...

www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jan/16/ukcrime.uknews4 · Cached pageWhile Out on Bail, Kevorkian Attends A Doctor’s Suicide - The New York ... While Out on Bail, Kevorkian Attends A Doctor’s Suicide By DON TERRY Published: Tuesday, November ... was going to get worse before the bone cancer ravaging his 61-year-old body killed ...

www.nytimes.com/1993/11/23/us/while-out-on-bail-kevorkian-attends-a-doctor-s-suicide.html · Cached pageAnger as truck driver killed father while on bail | Mail OnlineAnger as truck driver killed father while on bail. Last updated at 08:58 16 June 2006 ... Repay the expenses or I’ll kick you out of the party’: Cameron’s warning to ...

[rednesss]

I don't see a problem here especially if you've read anything about the Houston Crime Lab scandal. People should not be spending decades in prison based upon the false assumption that if it's on a lab report it's King James Bible Gospel Truth.

I think forensic crime labs should not be all that cozy with the police or the prosecutor's office or anyone, they should be autonomous. They should be in the business of science and fact. Being chummy with the police gives me the impression of impropriety.

[rednesss]

You do realize that the Guardian and BBC or British???

[FreeInWV]

Sounds like you should be arguing about common sense bail procedures instead of against allowing defendants the opportunity to question evidence.

[jessduntno]

“Sounds like you should be arguing about common sense bail procedures instead of against allowing defendants the opportunity to question evidence.”

How are they seperate? Is there not a right to a speedy trial or to not be held too long in jail before trial?Aren’t the hearings all done in a courthouse? Why do you think there is such a problem with the wrong people out on bail? No where to put them...the court backlogs and time-to-trial is what is making it happening. Trials take so long, the bail is set too low (if there were stronger enforcements, IF we had the holding facilities, then everyone would be howling about that) and that is why this stuff happens...and I am not arguing against questioning evidence...it should be done in a way that makes sense...and having someone who knows nothing about it is the wrong person to be questioning it and the extra time it takes brings about some real travesties, too...

[SeaHawkFan]

Then you are unbelievably naive. Google Edwin Wilson and read the order vacating his conviction.

[jessduntno]

“You do realize that the Guardian and BBC or British???”

Yeah...take out the two from the five hundred you find when you do the search...sorry, I didn’t intend to detail each one, it was a demonstration that bad shit happens for a lot of reasons tied to overwloaded court dockets...

[jessduntno]

Thanks...I’ll get to it right after I re-read Oxbow Incident...naive is one thing I’m not...I’m also not arguing that this doesn’t happen...I’m not even arguing against the idea of careful examination of evidence...I think it is naive to think you will not create enormous problems in an already snafu’d system by throwing open cross examinations to everyone involved by everyone involved...and not, at some point, breaking down any system that gives you your right to a speedy trial.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but isn’t overanalyzing all of the evidence and techniques and lab tests and everything else going to make every trial as long as OJ’s??

[Rockingham]

For all its advances, forensic science has a complex set of problems that are only beginning to be understood and addressed:

(1) poorly run labs that do not perform and document their work through accepted scientific procedures;

(2) a relative lack of quality accreditation bodies and standards for labs and technicians;

(3) a near absence of scientific studies for some key forensic tools like fingerprints;

(4) inadequate funding;

(5) a near lack of effective independent auditing of lab performance and reliability;

(6) poor understanding and advocacy by prosecutors and defense attorneys as to lab evidence.

Making crime labs independent entities would do little to address these issues and might make them worse. Independent labs would tend to be bureaucratic stepchildren as to funding, and they would likely become the equivalent of the post office, where everyone waits on the same line with no distinctions as to the relative importance the business at hand.

Moreover, making labs independent might give them unwarranted credibility even when their results are weak. Prosecutors could say, in effect, “This is independently obtained and analyzed evidence and is not simply what the prosecution is saying. We should believe these lab results in spite of the defense attacks on these fine and disinterested scientists.”

On the whole, we are better off keeping to the principle that the police and prosecution are responsible for gathering and analyzing evidence and presenting it in court, with the defense then able to challenge it. The advocacy system is imperfect but it works.

[goat granny]

If the prosecution has evidence, they better be prepared to have everyone involved in collection of that evidence cross examined.. From the tech that found and preserved it, right on up the line of "chain of evidence.".

I have read so many stories in the last couple of years of corrupt prosecutors, that I have changed my mind of the death penalty...

[jessduntno]

>>Hmmm, don’t we have a Constitutional right to confront all accusers??? Why isn’t this a 9-0 decision??? Why should a lab rat be exempt from having to defend their accusations???<<

Very good question. I was wondering exactly the same thing. Heck, they got to cross examine the “lab rat” even in My Cousin Vinney!

No, the defendants did NOT question the “lab rat” in My Cousin Vinny...their lawyer Vinny questioned him after presenting his case by way of HIS expert’s testimony...it’s the way it should work...and the two Utes were innocent...

[RobRoy]

Ute!? What's a Ute?

[rednesss]

Unless they were pro se, then whenever you read “defendant argues” or “defendant implies” in court opinions, they are always talking about the counsel saying it, not the person on trial.

[jessduntno]

Ohhhhhhh.....I’m sorry....two
youuuuuuuuutttttttthhhhhhhhhhsssssssss....

[jessduntno]

"Unless they were pro se, then whenever you read “defendant argues” or “defendant implies” in court opinions, they are always talking about the counsel saying it, not the person on trial."

A defendant is;

1. In pro per, or pro se (both phrases are used, and roughly tranlated into latin means "you are screwed")

or

2. Represented by counsel

They can not be both at the same time...

[RobRoy]

Mrs. Riley, and ONLY Mrs. Riley!