RICHMOND – Virginia lawmakers on Wednesday unanimously passed a tenuous fix to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that has led to a wave of demands for forensic analysts to show up in court.
The high court’s Melendez-Diaz decision in June has created a nightmare for prosecutors, vastly increased subpoenas for scientists’ courtroom testimony and even allowed some defendants to go free.
The General Assembly convened for a one-day session chiefly to address the ruling, which shifts the burden on prosecutors to produce analysts in court to be cross-examined on their lab results.
The House and Senate each passed bills to give defense attorneys a limited time before the trial in which to contest those results and call an analyst into the courtroom. If that analyst can’t appear on time, the legislation grants a three-month continuance for a jailed defendant, or six months for a defendant out on bond.
Lawmakers were resigned to the stopgap natures of the measure, and were prepared to revisit it once they convene for the 2010 legislative session in January.
“If we don’t act now, we’ve got an awful lot of the cases that are going to be dismissed,” said Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Springfield. “The bill is not a permanent fix.”
Under the change, a defendant would be given notice that a report certifying the lab results will be used in the trial, instead of live testimony. The defendant has 14 days to object to it.
The Virginia Department of Forensic Science has seen a dramatic spike in subpoenas since the Supreme Court ruling. In the agency’s drug section, which handles about 50 percent of its total cases, scientists were called into court 925 times in July. During the same month last year, that division received 43 subpoenas.
Gov. Tim Kaine hailed the General Assembly’s action Wednesday evening.
“Although there are additional concerns that will need to be addressed by the legislature in the 2010 legislative session in January, the measures approved today ensure some key challenges initially presented by the court decision have been resolved,” Kaine said.
