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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2009
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10

Court: Defendants Can Question Crime Lab

Scientists must be brought to court

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(Newser) – A 5-4 Supreme Court ruling yesterday gives defendants the chance to face authors of crime lab reports in their cases. Prosecutors who want to use lab testing undertaken for a given case will be required to bring its authors to court, where the defense can confront them. The ruling shows “a heavy dose of skepticism that crime lab reports are so reliable as to be beyond question,” writes Lyle Deniston in SCOTUSblog.

Labs aren’t always as “neutral or as reliable” as they’re said to be, wrote Antonin Scalia in the majority opinion; more important, the defendant has a right of confrontation. The court was divided on unusual lines, with three liberal justices and one conservative backing Scalia, and two conservatives and a liberal backing Anthony Kennedy’s dissent.

Members of the U.S. Supreme Court sit for a group portrait at the Supreme Court in Washington in this March 3, 2006 file photo.
Members of the U.S. Supreme Court sit for a group portrait at the Supreme Court in Washington in this March 3, 2006 file photo.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
In this April 7, 2008 photo, Justice Antonin Scalia addresses a group of law students, lawyers and faculty members at the Roger Williams University law school in Bristol, R.I.
In this April 7, 2008 photo, Justice Antonin Scalia addresses a group of law students, lawyers and faculty members at the Roger Williams University law school in Bristol, R.I.   (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, File)
In this April 7, 2008 file photo, Justice Antonin Scalia addresses a group of law students, lawyers and faculty members at the Roger Williams University law school in Bristol, R.I.
In this April 7, 2008 file photo, Justice Antonin Scalia addresses a group of law students, lawyers and faculty members at the Roger Williams University law school in Bristol, R.I.   (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, FILE)
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10 comments
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RobN
Jun 26, 09 9:10 AM CDT
Alright Libs, admit it, you didn't see this one coming. Reply
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-1
IN RESPONSE:
Amber
Jun 26, 09 9:51 AM CDT
Unsure why you targetsd the "Lib's" in the remark but many Liberals have been pushing this measure for years. It is well past time the court passed this forward as rule of law as so many cases in recent history have been reversed when the truth came to light that the Lab Tech either diliberatly tained results or misled Prosecutirs as to their qualifications in certain fields.
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IN RESPONSE:
RobN
Jun 26, 09 10:04 AM CDT
It was a light-hearted dig at the posters here who consider Scalia to be the devil incarnate who has no thought for individual liberties. Not "targeting" anyone, but anybody who's been around Newser for any length of time knows in what regard Scalia is held by our more liberal posters. It seems like a good ruling to me although if the techs who do the actual work have to spend half their time in court testifying about their methodology, it's going to slow labs down to a crawl.
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IN RESPONSE:
anchower
Jun 26, 09 9:18 PM CDT
Scalia is, generally speaking, an utter scumbag. But he has been known to side with criminal defendants. Like in the thermal-imaging case. So no, nothing shocking about his being in the majority here. (Nothing shocking about Breyer dissenting, either. He's not nearly as "liberal" as rightists make him out to be.)
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godawgs
Jun 26, 09 9:24 AM CDT
This is good, why wouldn't you be able to confront someone in a trail. Reply
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