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 Supreme
Court Ruling
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/08pdf/07-591.pdf
"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to
a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and
district where in the crime shall have been committed, which
district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be
informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted
with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for
obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of
Counsel for his defence."
6th Amendment to the US Constitution
The Supreme Court recently handed down a 5-4 ruling in the
Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts (07-591)
case that effects all
forensic scientists.
The ruling requires that a prosecutor, if presenting a lab report as
evidence in a criminal trial, make the analyst who prepared the
report available for cross examination if demanded by the defense.
Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote for the majority, states, “There
is little reason to believe that confrontation will be useless in
testing analysts’ honesty, proficiency, and methodology — the
features that are commonly the focus in the cross-examination of
experts.”
Justice Scalia further uses information from published reports,
including the one from the National Academy of Science, to challenge
the neutrality and reliability of forensic science when he writes,
“Forensic evidence is not uniquely immune from the risk of
manipulation.”
he goes on,
“[T]here is wide variability across forensic science disciplines
with regard to techniques, methodologies, reliability, types and
numbers of potential errors, research, general acceptability, and
published material.”
and writes,
"Confrontation is designed to weed out not only the fraudulent
analyst, but the incompetent one as well. Serious deficiencies have
been found in the forensic evidence used in criminal trials."
Please see the attached link to read the full text of the ruling and
feel free to respond with comments.
Gregg Mokrzycki
President, MAAFS
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