The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall have the right to be confronted by the witnesses against him.  An example is when the prosecution attempts to introduce lab reports without calling the lab technician that actually conducted the tests.  This issue was recently addressed by the United States Supreme Court in Bullcoming vs. New Mexico.  Bullcoming was charged with the offense of DWI.  The principal evidence against Bullcoming was a forensic laboratory report certifying that his blood-alcohol concentration was above the threshold for aggravated DWI.  In Bullcoming the Court held:

1)  The Confrontation Clause does not permit the prosecution to introduce a forensic laboratory report containing a testimonial certification, made in order to prove a fact at a criminal trial, through the in-court testimony of an analyst who did not sign the certification or personally perform or observe the performance of the test reported in the certification.

2)  The accused’s right is to be confronted with the analyst who made the certification, unless that analyst is unavailable at trial, and the accused had an opportunity, pretrial, to cross-examine that particular scientist.

 

 

Comments are closed.