The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that crime lab reports used in drug and other cases can be introduced as evidence at trial only if defendants can cross-examine the forensic analysts who prepared them.
The case came from Massachusetts; it was a cocaine-trafficking case that partly depended on a crime-lab report on white powder found in the defendant's car. The defense wanted to call the lab tech as a witness, but the judge said no, and Melendez-Diaz was convicted.
Here's more information from the
SCOTUSBlog and the
ScotusWiki case summary.
Basically, this will give us opportunities to have more fun with the lab tech and such, if we're doing courtroom stories.
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