[Download] "Criminal Law - Inconclusive DNA Test Results Admitted As Relevant Evidence Despite Absence of Random Match Probability Analysis - Commonwealth V. Mattei (Massachusetts)" by Suffolk Journal of Trial & Appellate Advocacy " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free

Criminal Law - Inconclusive DNA Test Results Admitted As Relevant Evidence Despite Absence of Random Match Probability Analysis - Commonwealth V. Mattei (Massachusetts)

eBook details

Title: Criminal Law - Inconclusive DNA Test Results Admitted As Relevant Evidence Despite Absence of Random Match Probability Analysis - Commonwealth V. Mattei (Massachusetts)
Author : Suffolk Journal of Trial & Appellate Advocacy
Release Date : January 01, 2009
Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
Pages : * pages
Size : 129 KB

Description

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts's current standard for admissibility of scientific evidence at trial is based on relevancy and reliability. (1) The first successful evidentiary use of deoxyribonucleic acid ("DNA") test results in a criminal trial in the United States occurred in 1987, but the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ("SJC") did not address the issue until 1991. (2) In Commonwealth v. Mattei, (3) the Massachusetts Court of Appeals considered the admissibility of inconclusive DNA test results in a criminal trial. (4) The court improperly concluded that the inconclusive DNA test results were admissible as relevant evidence despite the lack of a statistical probability analysis of the likelihood that a match occurred by chance. (5) Following a jury trial, Defendant Alexander Mattei was convicted of numerous crimes, including assault with intent to rape. (6) At trial, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ("Commonwealth") produced evidence of DNA samples that were recovered during the police investigation of the crimes. (7) The Commonwealth's expert testified that neither Mattei nor the victim could be definitively identified or excluded as a source of the DNA because some of the samples contained mixtures of DNA from more than one person. (8) At no time did the Commonwealth's expert provide any information of the statistical probability that either Mattei's or the victim's DNA was a random match to the samples taken from the crime scene. (9)