San Diego Criminal News » evidence

San Diego Drug Cases May Contain Questionable Lab Results

admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:16:02 +0000

A new finding has shown that many drug test results from LA-based Pacific Toxicology may have shown false positives on the drug test, leaving many innocent people in jail for misdemeanor drug charges.

Ten people from Vista have already been released from jail and San Diego criminal lawyers expect that many of their clients will have their cases dismissed or overturned due to the report. Reports show that as many as 1000 test results may be void, but prosecutors are avid that not all of the tests will result in overturned cases or dismissals.

The faulty results span all the way from May until now. Since the scandal, the San Diego police have stopped working with the lab for the time being.

To read more about the issue, see the article in the San Diego News Network. Image Via spratmackrel [Flickr].

MRI Brain Scan Permitted Into Evidence For First Time

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:55:39 +0000

In a courtroom first, an fMRI brain scan was permitted to be used as evidence. The scan was entered into the trial by the defense attorney of Brian Dougan, who was accused of raping and murdering a 10 year old boy. The defense was hoping to use the evidence as proof that Dougan was psychopathic and therefore, ineligible for the death penalty. While he was still sentenced to death for his crimes, the use of fMRI scans in courtroom trials opens up new opportunities for defense attorneys everywhere.

Defendants need to not get too comfortable with the idea of using fMRIs as evidence though. As Stanford legal professor Hank Greely points out, “The penalty phase of a capital case … is a special situation where the law bends over backwards to allow the convicted man to introduce just about any mitigating evidence.”

Earlier this year a San Diego criminal attorney attempted to enter an fMRI into trial in a juvenille sexual abuse case, but the evidence was withdrawn without being admitted.

To read more about this breakthrough in evidence admittance, see the Wired article. Image Via Banana Donuts [Flickr].

Supreme Court Decision Requires Analyst Testimony

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:45:33 +0000

A recent Supreme Court decision has already been resulting in an increased number of acquittals in drug and dui cases. The decision from Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts says that prosecutors must present a lab analyst for cross-examination in order for forensic evidence to stand in court. Prior to this decision, prosecutors were permitted to enter a paper lab report as suitable evidence.

While many prosecutors are claiming this will provide them with an unnecessary burden that will stretch their already thin budgets too tightly, defense attorneys everywhere are praising the court for this additional protection against wrongful convictions. San Diego Criminal Attorney Henry Root believes this will help put an end to evidence abuse by dishonest police forensic labs, some of whom have been known to occasionally manipulate evidence to better support a conviction. He also believes this will help eliminate the concern of incompetent or unfocused analysts as well.

Justice Scalia wrote of the decision, “[the defendant] was entitled to ‘be confronted with’ the analysts at trial.”

Peter Neufeld of the Innocence Project in New York explained, “The Supreme Court rejected the notion that forensic science is always neutral and based on solid science…The Court said our criminal justice system can’t rely blindly on forensic analysts’ reports because they may distort results to favor the prosecution.”

More information about the decision and how it is already affecting the court systems can be found here.

Image Via NCinDC [Flickr]