UNC School of Government blog post by Jeff Welty on the Supreme Court case Maryland v. King which allows the taking of DNA from arrestees.
Cases
Supreme Court: Alert by a Trained or Certified Drug Dog Normally Provides Probable Cause
UNC School of Government blog post by Jeff Welty that explains the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 holding in Florida v. Harris. Harris holds that when a trained and certified drug dog alerts on a vehicle, that normally provides probable cause to search the car, even if there are no records regarding the dog’s performance in the field. …
Supreme Court: Alert by a Trained or Certified Drug Dog Normally Provides Probable CauseRead More
State v. Lawson, 352 Ore. 724 (2012)
On Nov. 29, 2012, the Oregon Supreme Court issued an important decision, which places the burden on the state to establish the reliability of the eyewitness identification and recognizes and requires courts to act in a manner consistent with the latest scientific research on eyewitness identification and memory. This opinion may be useful in NC …
State of Maryland v. Charles David Brightful, et al, No. K-10-04-259, Circuit Court for Carroll County, MD March 5, 2012
The Circuit Court for Carroll County, Maryland held that DRE evidence should be excluded. The court held that identification and classification by DREs “is not generally accepted as valid and reliable in the relevant scientific community.” See the opinion for a summary of expert testimony regarding DRE examinations which raises questions about the accuracy of …
State v. Dail (unpublished)
No. COA 11-384 Defendant’s Brief contains caselaw regarding canine sniffs and Fourth Amendment protections.
State v. Trogdon
715 S.E.2d 635, N.C.App., September 20, 2011 (NO. COA10-1344) Defendant argued that the forensic odontologist improperly invaded the province of the jury by testifying that the defendant caused the bite mark on the child. The court held that even if the specific assertions that the defendant was the one who made the bite marks were …
People v. Jabrocki
79th District Court for the County of Mason, Michigan – May 6, 2011 opinion holding that “calculation of an uncertainty budget or error rate and the reporting of the same is an essential element of the scientific methodology for analyzing blood alcohol content using gas chromatography” and denying the prosecution’s Motion to Admit the blood …
Aleman v. Village of Hanover Park
662 F.3d 897 (2011). 1983 claim where 7th Circuit Court of Appeals recognizes an interim lucid period between shaking and collapse
State v. Boozer, 210 N.C. App. 371 (2011)
NC Court of Appeals found the trial court properly denied the defendant’s motion to suppress asserting that an eyewitness’s pretrial identification was unduly suggestive and found no violation of the EIRA where the eyewitness identified the defendant by looking through the pages of The Slammer newspaper.
Willie Grimes case
A three-judge panel in NC decided Mr. Grimes was innocent of a 1987 rape conviction for which he had served more than 24 years. Fingerprints from the crime scene did not match Grimes, but the State withheld that evidence until the trial. In 2011, the prints were uploaded into the Automated Fingerprint Identification System and …
State v. Ward 364 N.C. 133 (2010)
A NC Supreme Court decision finding the trial court abused its discretion by allowing the State’s expert to visually identify drugs using an insufficiently established method. The court found the expert’s use of information in Micromedex literature to make drug identification did not meet the first prong of Rule 702 as it was never established …
State v. Rawls, 700 S.E.2d 112 (2010)
In State v. Rawls, 700 S.E.2d 112 (2010), the Court of Appeals held that “show-ups” are distinct from line-ups, and, therefore, are not subject to the guidelines set out in EIRA. Rather, the court applied the North Carolina common law test for determining if the show-up was proper which is a two-step inquiry described above: (1) …
Burton v. Kentucky, 300 S.W.3d 126 (Ky. 2009)
Testimony from a DRE was improper where the DRE did not personally observe the defendant but instead based his opinion on review of records.
The Defenses of Voluntary Intoxication, Diminished Capacity, and Unconsciousness
For the 2008 Public Defender Spring Conference, Lisa Miles surveys 186 cases in which the court found evidence sufficient or not sufficient to warrant an instruction on voluntary intoxication, diminished capacity, or unconsciousness.
The Defenses of Voluntary Intoxication, Diminished Capacity, and UnconsciousnessRead More
False Positives Equal False Justice
A California Attorneys for Criminal Justice (CACJ) report by John Kelly. The report is largely based on the research of Dr. Frederic Whitehurst who tested field drug test kits and exposed and documented that they render false positives with legal substances. The report focuses on the Duquenois-Levine and KN Reagent tests used to test for …