Related: You Can't Handle the Truth
Why Massachusetts Needs Republicans
WTF, Massachusetts?
It took the CONSERVATIVE SUPREME COURT to ASSERT RIGHTS in the MOST LIBERAL STATE in the NATION?
"Accused win right to query forensics; High court rules on confronting scientific evidence" by Jonathan Saltzman and John Ellement, Globe Staff | June 26, 2009
The Supreme Court, in a ruling that stems from a Boston drug case, held yesterday that criminal defendants have a constitutional right to cross-examine forensic experts who prepare laboratory reports on illegal drugs and other scientific evidence used at trial.
I think it is time to DECRIMINALIZE (especially since we DAMN NEAR VOTED FOR IT in NOVEMBER)!!!! This is WHY the COURTS COST almost $6oo MILLION a YEAR!
And IF YOU THINK I TRUST ANY AUTHORITY NOW, oh you DON'T KNOW the LONG, SOBBING JOURNEY (and I won't torture you with it)!
By a 5-4 vote, the court said the Sixth Amendment guarantee of a right to confront witnesses extended to forensic analysis, such as reports that a powder seized by police was cocaine. The ruling invalidates a Massachusetts law that allowed prosecutors to present such evidence without allowing defendants to cross-examine the experts.
SIG HEIL, Massachusetts!!!
Attorney General Martha Coakley, who had argued before the court that the confrontation clause did not apply to such evidence, predicted yesterday that the ruling will result in drug dealers walking free.
Yup, and if you decriminalize pot into a $100 fine for public use, we will ALL BE FLOODING to the CORNER to LIGHT UP!!!!
HASN'T HAPPENED, you FEAR-MONGER pieces of FASCISTA FILTH!!!!!!
She said the state does not have enough laboratory analysts to testify in the approximately 60,000 drug cases handled by the courts - about 5 percent of which go to trial - if defendants seek to cross-examine them. If no experts are available, she said, defendants will probably ask judges to dismiss the cases.
GOOD!!!!
Btw, NEED MONEY?
Ask THESE GUYS!
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Hollywood S***s on Massachusetts
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Massachusetts Residents Taken For a Ride
How many times I gotta put 'em up?“There will be drug dealers who will not be punished,’’ she said. “They will walk out of court.’’
You mean like him and him and her?
John A. Grossman, undersecretary of forensic science and technology in the state public safety office, said in a recent Globe interview that the cash-strapped state would have to hire 100 chemists at a cost of about $5 million if the court ruled that such experts must be available to testify. Chemists analyze drug evidence in labs at the Department of Public Health, the State Police, and the University of Massachusetts....
I TOLD YOU WHERE you could FIND the $$$!
Besides, they JUST RAISED TAXES!
Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court, said such defendants have a constitutional right to confront lab analysts, in part because the experts may feel pressure to manipulate the evidence to favor prosecutors.
Oh, is THAT EVER a BIG UP-YOUR ASS to the SMUG, SELF-RIGHTEOUS LIBERALS that populate the state (a LOT LESS LATELY with the TAX HIKE! Oh, the people in town are buzzing!)
“Confrontation is designed to weed out not only the fraudulent analyst, but the incompetent one as well,’’ Scalia wrote. “Serious deficiencies have been found in the forensic evidence used in criminal trials.’’
He brushed aside concerns by prosecutors and the dissenting justices that making forensic experts available would burden states. He noted that about 20 states, including California, already give defendants some rights to cross-examine lab employees about forensic evidence.
So Mass is BEHIND the CURVE?
Btw, YOU BURDEN US with your LOOTING TAXES, so HOW'S IT FEEL?
“Perhaps the best indication that the sky will not fall after today’s decision is that it has not done so already,’’ he wrote.
YUP!!!!!
In dissent, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that the decision “sweeps away an accepted rule governing the admission of scientific evidence’’ that has been in place for at least 90 years. When interpreting the confrontation clause, he went on, the majority drew no distinction between laboratory analysts who perform scientific tests and conventional witnesses.
“The Court purchases its meddling with the Confrontation Clause at a dear price, a price not measured in taxpayer dollars alone,’’ Kennedy wrote. “Guilty defendants will go free, on the most technical grounds, as a direct result of today’s decision, adding nothing to the truth-finding process.’’
Like they care about the truth!
Pfft!
9/11, Iraq lies, WAR CRIMES, TORTURE, etc, etc.
WHEN you gonna LOOK INTO THAT, judge?
Coakley, who argued the case Nov. 10 in her first appearance before the high court, said she would seek to introduce state legislation to lessen the burden of the ruling on forensic experts and law enforcement officials. Under the bill, prosecutors would alert defendants that the state intends to introduce lab reports into evidence and give the defense an opportunity to forfeit the right to cross-examine them.
You're fired if you do!
Some legal specialists say defendants might opt not to cross-examine the experts because such testimony could reinforce the incriminating evidence.
Berkshire District Attorney David F. Capeless, president of the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association, decried the ruling but called it a “Pyrrhic victory for defendants.’’ He said requiring forensic experts to be available to testify will delay trials, which could mean defendants wait in jail longer for charges to be resolved.
This in FREE and LIBERAL Massachusetts!!!!
So, WHICH CITY is OUR GITMO, Globe?
“This was simply a technical complaint, which now is going to cause a huge upheaval in the criminal justice system,’’ he said.
Yeah, BECAUSE of STATE OVERREACTION and TYRANNY!!
DECRIMINALIZE!!!!!!!
The ruling appeared to cut across ideological lines on the court. Siding with Scalia were Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David H. Souter, John Paul Stevens, and Clarence Thomas.
Then it MUST HAVE BEEN CORRECT!!
So WHO are the FASCISTS?!!!!
Joining Kennedy in dissent were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Stephen G. Breyer.
--more--"Get your HEAD out of the GAY MARRIAGE ASS, Massachushitts, will ya?
(I'm sorry, readers; I have blogger's version of Tourettes Syndrome, particularly when being informed of tyranny, shit)!
