Dog scent evidence thrown out in capital case in Houston.
A state district judge on Tuesday threw out dog scent evidence in a pending capital murder case, saying it is not reliable.
Judge Clifford Vacek said the evidence-gathering technique, in which a specially trained dog matches a suspect’s scent to items from a crime scene, is not advanced enough.
"It’s just not quite there yet," he said.
Attorneys for a Houston man accused of killing a Fort Bend couple two years ago asked the judge last week to throw out the evidence, calling it "junk science."
Vacek made his ruling after a pre-trial hearing that lasted three days.
"Since we don’t have the ability to verify the results or to repeat the tests, this court finds that this type of test is not reliable enough, and, therefore, it is not admissible," Vacek ruled.
He used a hunting analogy to make his point.
"For example, when the dogs are baying on a trail and you’re coon hunting, you assume that they’re after a coon. And when you get to the tree, and they’re baying up a tree, you assume they’ve got a coon there, because that’s what they’ve been trained to do, but you can look up in the tree and verify it," Vacek said. "Scent lineups present a unique problem, and that is verifying the result."
Link:
http://www.ultimatefortbend.com/2010/05/dog-scent-evidence-thrown-out-capital-case