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Criminal Law

: Grits for Breakfast

Are crime lab reports "testimonial" documents? SCOTUS will decide

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Doc Berman over at Sentencing Law & Policy recently asked what "sleeper" cases at the US Supreme Court people were watching, and I mentioned that, though not a sentencing issue per se, I was interested in the outcome of of Melendez-Diaz v Massachussetts, which was granted cert this spring and will be argued this fall. The case will decide whether a lab report is "testimonial" evidence subject to Crawford/confrontation requirements, meaning a defendant would have the right to cross examine the lab technicians who performed the lab work.This case has important implications for challenging bad forensic science in court; circuit courts are split 6-5 in (bare) favor of concluding lab reports are "testimonial" documents.Unequivocally my own view is that considering lab reports anything but written expert testimony seriously misunderstands modern forensic science, which is not "objective" science but a results oriented, conviction driven body of techniques, not a formal application of the scientific method...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on May 13, 2008 (boomark / email).