Sandy Williams: Justice Scalia gets unexpected support on right to confront actual DNA analyst; Mike Sacks; Huffington Post;

BACKGROUND: the William's raises the important issue as to whether a state rule of evidence allowing an expert witness to testify about the results of DNA testing performed by non-testifying analysts violates the Confrontation Clause, when the defendant has no opportunity to confront the actual analysts.

STORY: The Huffington Post post by Mike Sacks was published earlier today under the heading "Justice Anthony Kennedy confronts Sixth Amendment case, hints at change of heart, cites Hamlet."

GIST: "By the time Deputy U.S. Solicitor General Michael Dreeben rose to argue in support of Illinois, all that remained was the coup de grace. Scalia, seemingly victorious once again, said, "You're telling me that this confrontation clause allows you to simply say, 'Well, we're not going to bring in the person who did the test. We are simply going to say this is a reliable lab.'""

THE FULL POST CAN BE FOUND AT:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/06/justice-anthony-kennedy-sixth-amendment-hamlet_n_1132620.html

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 found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;