"STANFORD UNIVERSITY LAW PROFESSOR JEFFREY L. FISHER, WHO REPRESENTED MELENDEZ-DIAZ, SAYS THE DECISION WILL HELP ENSURE THAT ANALYSTS WILL BE CAREFUL WHEN THEY DO THEIR TESTING AND WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE WHEN THEY MAKE MISTAKES. HE ALSO SAYS THAT THE BURDEN WON’T BE NEARLY AS ONEROUS ON PROSECUTORS AS THE DISSENTERS HAVE SUGGESTED.
CASE WESTERN’S GIANNELLI AND THE OTHER MELENDEZ-DIAZ AMICI ALSO ARGUE THAT THE POTENTIAL BURDENS OF SUCH TESTIMONY HAVE BEEN OVERSTATED. FEW CRIMINAL CASES ACTUALLY INVOLVE CONTESTED EXPERT TESTIMONY. AND THE USE OF COST-SAVING MECHANISMS, LIKE STIPULATIONS AND SIMPLE NOTICE-AND-DEMAND STATUTES, WILL ALLEVIATE MUCH OF THE ANTICIPATED BURDEN, THEY CONTEND."
MARK HANSEN: AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION JOURNAL;
PHOTO: JUSTICE ANTON SCALIA;
"The ruling invalidated a Massachusetts law that allowed prosecutors to present forensic experts’ reports as evidence without giving defendants a chance to cross-examine them.
During Melendez-Diaz’s retrial, prosecutors followed the new regime laid out by the high court. On Wednesday, they called to the stand a chemist from the state Department of Public Health who testified that the substance allegedly found in the back seat of a police cruiser with Melendez-Diaz and two other men in 2001 had tested positive for cocaine.
Margaret Fox, defense lawyer for Melendez-Diaz, said the verdict was “an enormous relief.’’
“It was a case that really seemed to be about guilt by association,’’ she said. “He’s very thankful he was given a second trial and that the jury got it right.’’"
REPORTER MARTIN FINUCANE: THE BOSTON GLOBE;
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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. The following Boston Globe article shows that the Supreme Court decision helped save Melendez-Diaz. He was acquitted on the new trial.
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"A Jamaica Plain man has been acquitted in a retrial of a cocaine trafficking case that went to the US Supreme Court and resulted in a landmark decision affecting evidence in criminal trials around the country," the Boston Globe story by reporter Martin Finucane published on February 11, 2011 begins, under the heading, "Drug defendant retried on high court’s order is acquitted."
"A jury found Luis Melendez-Diaz, 32, not guilty yesterday in Suffolk Superior Court," the story continues.
"Melendez-Diaz’s appeal of his 2004 cocaine trafficking conviction led to a ruling by the Supreme Court in 2009 that the US Constitution’s Sixth Amendment guarantees defendants in criminal cases the right to confront forensic experts in court.
The ruling invalidated a Massachusetts law that allowed prosecutors to present forensic experts’ reports as evidence without giving defendants a chance to cross-examine them.
During Melendez-Diaz’s retrial, prosecutors followed the new regime laid out by the high court. On Wednesday, they called to the stand a chemist from the state Department of Public Health who testified that the substance allegedly found in the back seat of a police cruiser with Melendez-Diaz and two other men in 2001 had tested positive for cocaine.
Margaret Fox, defense lawyer for Melendez-Diaz, said the verdict was “an enormous relief.’’
“It was a case that really seemed to be about guilt by association,’’ she said. “He’s very thankful he was given a second trial and that the jury got it right.’’
Jake Wark, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, said that time had worked against the prosecution.
“We’re 10 years out from the original incident, and the passage of so much time only makes a case tougher to try,’’ he said.
While Melendez-Diaz was acquitted yesterday, he is still serving a 10-year sentence for drug trafficking in Plymouth County, Wark said.
In the original case, Melendez and the two other men were arrested in Dorchester and placed in the back of a police cruiser. Officers allegedly noticed that the men were fidgeting on the way to the police station. They searched the car and found 19 bags of a white substance.
Department of Public Health lab technicians determined the substance contained cocaine, and three certificates of analysis were submitted at the first trial.
Melendez-Diaz appealed unsuccessfully to the state Appeals Court; the Supreme Judicial Court declined to hear the case, and he went to the Supreme Court."
Brian R. Ballou of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
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The story can be found at:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/02/11/drug_defendant_retried_on_high_courts_order_is_acquitted/
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be accessed at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
For a breakdown of some of the cases, issues and controversies this Blog is currently following, please turn to:
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=120008354894645705&postID=8369513443994476774
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com.
