Supreme Court requires scientists to testify, regarding their findings.

Legal experts and prosecutors are concerned about the results of last month's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that requires lab analysts to be in court to testify about their tests. Lab sheets that identify a substance as a narcotic or breath-test printouts describing a suspect's blood-alcohol level are no longer sufficient evidence, the court ruled. A person must be in court to talk about the test results. "This is the biggest case for the defense since Miranda," said Fairfax defense lawyer Paul L. McGlone, referring to the Supreme Court ruling that required police to inform defendants of their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. He said judges "are no longer going to assume certain facts are true without requiring the prosecution to actually put on their evidence." Last month's Supreme Court ruling emerged from a case in which Luis E. Melendez-Diaz allegedly stashed cocaine in a Boston police car while he was under arrest. The certificate of analysis, determining that the white powder found in the car was cocaine, was entered without a technician's testimony and with only minor objection.
Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that Melendez-Diaz "was entitled to 'be confronted with' the [lab] analysts at trial."



Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/14/AR2009071403565.html?hpid=topnews