"District prosecutors and public defenders are asking the city’s highest court to adopt what they say is a more rigorous standard for screening out “bad science” in criminal cases. The D.C. Court of Appeals on Tuesday will consider whether to change the rules for how judges admit expert witnesses — a courtroom procedural matter that can have major implications for criminal trials and civil product-liability lawsuits. If the court decides to switch to the standard used in most states and in federal courtrooms, local judges would be given a more robust role in filtering the evidence juries weigh at trial. The case before the appellate court involves the question of whether cellphones can cause brain cancer. Plaintiffs have sued cellphone manufacturers and providers in D.C. Superior Court alleging that long-term exposure to cellphone radiation causes brain tumors. The appellate court is not deciding that specific issue, but the full court is taking the opportunity to weigh how judges decide which experts are allowed to testify. Lawyers from D.C.’s Public Defender Service say the rules for admitting experts are particularly important in criminal cases because juries often rely heavily on scientific evidence and because unreliable forensic evidence is a leading cause of wrongful convictions. “Innocent defendants can lose their liberty based on faulty forensic evidence,” according to the defenders’ court filing, which cites techniques such as bite-mark analysis and hair and handwriting identification..........Attorneys for the 13 plaintiffs and a local organization of trial lawyers have urged the court to keep the current standard. Plaintiffs’ attorneys, representing people who suffer from or have died from brain tumors, say the cellphone companies are trying to change the legal standard after the fact because they are dissatisfied with the judge’s ruling. Any change, they said in court papers, would be a “drastic departure” from current practice.
“The case for further empowering judges to exclude evidence from juries is weak and should not be indulged here,” according to the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Thanks to Blogger Mike Bowers of 'Forensics in Focus - CSIDDS' - for bringing this story to our attention. HL.
