Sandy Williams was
arrested on a sexual charged in Chicago and convicted of that offense. Like New Jersey, Illinois requires that everyone convicted of a crime
(felony), be required to give a DNA sample
to the state police laboratory. After
Mr. Williams’ DNA sample was run in the national DNA data base it was determined that his DNA matched a sample from another crime scene.
At trial a person for the
prosecution testified that Mr. Williams DNA matched the sample found at the crime scene. This testimony was allowed in spite of the
fact that the crime scene sample was analyzed by Cellmark Diagnostics
Laboratory in Maryland.
Interesting in this case,
know one from Cellmark testified about the testing of this specimen, and Mr.
Williams was convicted.
This case unfortunately
appears to have eroded the seminal case Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts
and its progeny, Bullcoming v. New Mexico.
In New Jersey, however, because our state affords greater
constitutional protections than at the federal level, it would be highly
unlikely that such a conviction would occur without the testimony of the
forensic chemist from the lab who analyzed the DNA from the crime scene. In her dissent Justice Kagan pointed out that
in another case the technician from Cellmark admitted in cross-examination that
she had tested the wrong bloodied search.
The need to confront all
witnesses for the prosecution is essential under the Sixth Amendment to the United States and State’s constitution and that right cannot be
eviscerated by any court.
In a recent case Attorney
Sanzone was able in cross-examination at trial to get the chief forensic
chemist from the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office Crime Laboratory to admit that
her test results finding Marijuana were flawed and she admitted that there was
reasonable doubt as to whether the samples taken were in fact Marijuana. Specifically, she stated that because she was
not a botanist and the other test she performed gives false positives, there
was reasonable doubt as to whether her conclusions as to whether the substance
tested was in fact Marijuana as she stated in her laboratory report.
Law Office of Vincent J.
Sanzone, Jr.
P.O.
Box 261
277
North Broad Street
Elizabeth (Union County) New
Jersey 07207
Office Phone Number (908)
354-7706
Cell Phone Number (201) 240-5716
Union County Lawyers,
Union County NJ Criminal Lawyers, Best Union County Lawyers, Best Union County
Criminal Defense Lawyers, Union County Criminal Attorneys, New Jersey Union
County Attorneys, Union County Defense Attorneys, Beating the Drug Case, NJ
Drug Attorneys, NJ CDS trial lawyers,
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