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James Shellow on cross-examining drug analysts.

By Marks & Katz, LLC

On a recent criminal defense lawyers' listserv thread, a colleague recommended James Shellow's Cross Examination of the Analyst in DrugProsecutions (Lexis-Nexis). My colleague who posted on Shellow's above-listed treatise points out that he was a chemist before going to law school.  Interestingly, Justice Scalia references Shellow, as follows, in his majority opinion in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, 129 S.Ct. 2527 (2009):   "While we still do not know the precise tests used by the analysts, we are told that the laboratories use 'methodology recommended by the Scientific Working Group for the Analysis of Seized Drugs,' App. to Brief for Petitioner 1a?2a. At least some of that methodology requires the exercise of judgment and presents a risk of error that might be explored on cross-examination...continue to full post

Full post as published by Underdog on February 04, 2010 (boomark / email).