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- Title
The Untrustworthy Chemist: The Trouble with Expert Witnesses and DNA Evidence in Massachusetts.
- Authors
Steele, Aisling E.
- Abstract
against him or herself. This presents problems when the "witness" is a DNA profile generated by a standardized protocol on an instrument operated by a lab technician. The accuser then becomes the analyst in the lab handling the DNA samples. This analyst is not always available for trial, and courts have struggled with determining the requirements for an expert's opinion at trial based on the analyst's work. Commonwealth v. Tassone presented this issue to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) with a State chemist from the police lab giving an expert opinion on a DNA profile generated by a private forensic DNA laboratory (Cellmark). The SJC determined that the State chemist was too far removed from the actual testing to provide the defendant with a real opportunity for cross-examination regarding the tests performed by Cellmark. The SJC correctly denied admission of the expert testimony, but the reasoning behind the holding contains a logical gap that does not support its policy of allowing expert witnesses to testify about tests that they have not performed themselves in previous cases.
- Subjects
EXCULPATORY DNA evidence; WITNESSES; CROSS-examination; MASSACHUSETTS. Supreme Judicial Court; LEGAL testimony
- Publication
New England Journal on Criminal & Civil Confinement, 2016, Vol 42, Issue 1, p143
- ISSN
0740-8994
- Publication type
Article