Tagged: lab report

Due Process / Evidence / Fifth Amendment / Fourteenth Amendment / Narcotics / Sixth Amendment / Violent Crime

No, Virginia, You Can’t Get Around the Confrontation Clause by Shifting the Burden of Proof

On June 25 last year, the Supreme Court held in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts that in a drug case the prosecution can’t simply use a sworn lab report to prove the existence of a controlled substance. If the chemist doesn’t testify, it violates the Confrontation Clause. (See our previous post about...

January 4, 2010
Sixth Amendment

Lab Report’s Not Enough — Chemist Must Testify

The Supreme Court this morning ruled that it’s a violation of the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause for the prosecution in a drug case to simply admit a sworn lab report, without the chemist’s testimony, to prove that the drugs were controlled substances. This is what we predicted, of course, making...

June 25, 2009

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Nathaniel Burney is an attorney in private practice, a former prosecutor, and a tireless advocate for Truth, Justice, and the Scientific Method. “Asides, Extras, and Appurtenances” is his accompaniment to The Illustrated Guide to Law, and also includes posts from the Guide’s predecessor blog The Criminal Lawyer. Nothing here counts as legal advice, nor does it create or imply an attorney-client relationship. Comments, criticisms, and disagreements are enthusiastically encouraged.