Thursday, November 13, 2008

Thoughts on Melendez-Diaz: chain of custody, products of a machine, who must testify, etc.

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While Melendez-Diaz is pending, I am going to write about various significant issues beaing on it. Here I will write about the chain of cus...
21 comments:
Monday, November 10, 2008

The Melendez-Diaz argument

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I have not been able to work much on the blog lately, because of the press of other work. But I attended the argument of Melendez-Diaz v. M...
16 comments:
Friday, October 17, 2008

States' amicus brief in Melendez-Diaz

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I previously posted what I thought were all the state-side amicus briefs in Melendez-Diaz -- but I had not received, and was unaware of, on...
1 comment:

Shoddy forensics in LA police lab

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I've previously reported on the closing of the Detroit police lab because of a high error rate. Now , according to a story in the Los...
Thursday, October 02, 2008

Reply brief in Melendez-Diaz

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Here is the reply brief for the petitioner in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts , the cased that will determine whether a forensic lab report ...
3 comments:
Sunday, September 28, 2008

Ineffective assistance and adequacy of a prior opportunity for cross

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A reader's question raises an interesting issue on which I haven't given much thought: If a witness testifies subject to cross agai...
3 comments:
Thursday, September 25, 2008

Detroit Police Crime Lab closed because of high error rate

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My student Brenna Speiser has called to my attention a report by the Detroit Free Press, on freep.com , with this dramatic lead: The Detroit...
Thursday, September 11, 2008

Respondent-side amicus briefs in Melendez-Diaz

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Two amicus briefs supporting hte Commonwealth have been filed in Melendez-Diaz . You can read the brief of the United States by clicking he...
2 comments:
Saturday, September 06, 2008

A legislative response to Giles?

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My student Ted Whalen has called to my attention a bill pending in Illinois, which you can read by clicking here , that seems designed to ta...
Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Respondent's brief in Melendez-Diaz

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Here is the brief on the merits of the Commonwealth, as respondent, in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts . I expect I will post some comments...
9 comments:

Reply brief in support of cert in Briscoe

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Here , rather belatedly, is the reply brief I filed last month in support of certiorari in Briscoe v. Virginia , challenging Virginia's ...
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Brief in Opposition in Briscoe

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The Commonwealth has filed its Brief in Opposition in Briscoe and Cypress v. Virginia , the case in which I filed a petition challenging Vi...
2 comments:
Friday, July 18, 2008

No confrontation issue if the statement isn’t even offered.

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That seems obvious enough, but the point arose in an interesting context in United States v. Tucker (8th Cir. Jul. 17, 2008) . Tucker assi...
6 comments:
Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Reflections on Giles, Part 4: The Alito and Thomas opinions

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Justice Thomas wrote a brief concurrence in Giles expressing the view that the statement at issue – made by the victim to a responding offi...
5 comments:
Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Reflection on Giles, Part 3: What Does It Mean?

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The accused has intentionally engaged in serious wrongful conduct that has in fact caused the victim to be unavailable as a witness at trial...
5 comments:
Sunday, June 29, 2008

Reflections on Giles, Part 2: Is Giles bad for defendants?

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On its surface, Giles appears to be a major victory for defendants. I am not sure that will prove to be right over the long run. 1. The G...
4 comments:
Friday, June 27, 2008

Reflections on Giles, Part 1: History, Dying Declarations, and Forfeiture

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As readers of this blog will recognize, I am obviously very disappointed by the result in Giles . It has unfortunate consequences for the t...
4 comments:
Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Giles vacated and remanded

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The Supreme Court decided Giles v. California today. You can see the opinion by clicking here . Giles won; the decision is vacated and re...
17 comments:
Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Top-side amicus briefs in Melendez-Diaz (updated, June 24, pm)

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Yesterday was the deadline for amicus briefs in support of the petitioner in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts , No. 07-591, the case raising ...
4 comments:
Thursday, June 19, 2008

Petitioner's brief in Melendez-Diaz

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While we wait for the Supreme Court to decide Giles , Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts , the case that will decide whether forensic lab report...
1 comment: