Melendez-Diaz continued
The Air Force Court decided three Article 62 appeals today (Skrede, Anderson, and Bradford) – reversing a military judge’s ruling limiting urinalysis evidence pursuant to Melendez-Diaz in each. CAAF will consider Melendez-Diaz‘s impact on the military urinalysis program in United States v. Blazier, which is currently scheduled for oral argument on 25 January 2010.
[Disclosure: I was a counsel for each of the appellees in today's decisions.]
I found the AF opinions to be a bit of a stretch, but pretty much what was to be expected given what ruling in the alternative would have meant to single spec drug pop cases. I’ll be very interested to see what CAAF has to say. I may be wrong, but I don’t see much wiggle room in Melendez Diaz on this issue.
SDC or Col Sullivan, the opinions aren’t posted yet on the AFCCA site. Is there another place I can read them?
I am very interested to see how CAAF comes down on this issue. Its seems to me that the military already provides more testimony to satisfy the confrontation clause than was considered in M-D. If you listen to the oral arguments from the S.Ct., the petitioner was simply asking for sombody, anybody, from the lab to testify about the results, be it a technician or a supervisor.
Based upon current law, including Melendez-Diaz, I think the Air Force Court got this right.
That being said, I question the wisdom of subjecting people to criminal sanction on the basis of urinalysis screening alone.
Sir Cloudesley,
I found the AF opinions to rely on footnotes and basically gutted Melendez Diaz, relying in large part on the part of the SC opinion that says that not all parts of the chain of custody need be brought in. That said, an expert who never touched the sample does not comply with Melendez-Diaz IMO. I don’t think the entire lab needs to be there, but the person who did the test (or at least one of them) does.
I do, however, agree with your analysis that single spec drug pops don’t belong at CM. They are a waste of MJ resources. Go with the ADSEP process. Better burden for the G, and guess what, sometimes servicemembers win there too.