"WE VACATE THE JUDGMENT OF THE SUPREME COURT OF VIRGINIA AND REMAND THE CASE FOR FURTHER PROCEEDINGS NOT INCONSISTENT WITH THE OPINION IN MELENDEZ-DIAZ V. MASSACHUSETTS...": U.S. SUPREME COURT; BRISCOE V. VIRGINIA;
(PHOTO: JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA);
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BACKGROUND: It's not every day that an issue involving the work of forensic scientists in the criminal courts comes under scrutiny in the Supreme Court of the United States; Nor is it every day that the Supreme Court issues a searing indictment of the forensic science system in the country and faces head-on the abuses such as manipulation, prosecutorial pressure, outright fraud, bias, error and incompetence. Canadians are well aware of this through the many miscarriages of justice caused in Ontario by Dr. Charles Smith. Americans, who haven't received this message yet, will learn it from the blunt words of Justice Antonin Scalia for the majority. The Supreme Court ruled that a state forensic analyst’s laboratory report prepared for use in a criminal prosecution is “testimonial” evidence and therefore subject to "confrontation" through cross-examination of the analyst - but not before Justice Scalia told Americans how vulnerable they are to wrongful convictions as a result of American forensic science as it is practiced today. They need all of the protection of the law that they can get.
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am pleased to get back into action with the U.S. Supreme Court's one-line opinion in the Briscoe/Virginia case which was released while I was re-charging my batteries under the Florida Sun. (Okay, the truth is that I spent hours in front of our TV set watching endless reruns of Law and Order.)
The entire opinion: "We vacate the judgment of the Supreme Court of Virginia and remand the case for further proceedings not inconsistent with the opinion in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts...."
The states will hopefully put their energies into putting into practice the spirit and the letter of the Melendez-Diaz decision - instead of waiting for likely futile opportunities to have it overturned.
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
