Letter to the editor: Ruling will clog judicial system
Ruling will clog judicial system
On June 25, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled it is no longer enough for the prosecution to introduce a report from a crime lab in a criminal trial — the defendant now has the right to cross-examine the actual analyst who examined the evidence being introduced.
For a state like New Mexico with a lengthy backlog of evidence waiting to be processed this only serves to further clog the judicial system.
Justice Anthony Kennedy addressed the effects this ruling would have on the justice process in the written dissent.
Noting that 500 employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation laboratory in Quantico, Va., conduct more than a million scientific tests each year, Kennedy wrote:
“The court’s decision means that before any of those million tests reaches a jury, at least one of the laboratory’s analysts must board a plane, find his or her way to an unfamiliar courthouse and sit there waiting to read aloud notes made months ago.” (www.nytimes.com)
A defendant has a right to a speedy trial in which we the people are required to turn over any evidence we uncover that may be exculpatory. How are we supposed to honor that right if our evidence analysts are all off testifying instead of processing the evidence?
I think it is possible that five of the wise nine have been watching too much CSI and not paying attention to how things work in the real world!
Before this ruling brings the New Mexico justice system to a halt we need to contact the governor and Legislature and let them know it is time to fund a video conferencing system that will allow analysts to testify from one court site within the state to another as well as from the state crime lab.
Jonathan La Vine
Clovis
