Richmond D. Phillips v. State of Maryland
Court of Appeals, Getty, Jan. 20, 2017,
DNA- CJP 10-915– A DNA analysis conducted under standards originally set forth by a federal working group qualified for automatic admissibility under CJP 10-915, even where the working group didn’t exist anymore.
There are some interesting aspects to this opinion, but I’ll have to come back if I really want to lay them out. The short version: the CoA attempts to out-literal the petitioner
Facts: In 2011, Phillips’ ex-girlfriend was shot and killed in a park in PG County. Their 11-month-old daughter then died of hyperthermia from being left in the hot car. Phillips admitted meeting his ex-girlfriend in the park, but denied killing her. DNA recovered from the car was consistent with Phillips’ DNA and the analysis was admitted at trial, where Phillips was convicted.
On appeal, Phillips argued that the DNA shouldn’t have been admitted because it wasn’t properly validated.
At the time, the law required either a Frye-Reed hearing establishing that the analysis used was generally accepted OR “A statement from the testing laboratory setting forth that the analysis of genetic loci has been validated by standards established by TWGDAM or the DNA Advisory Board is sufficient to admit a DNA profile [into evidence].” The DNA analyst testified at trial that “there is no such standard” generally accepted in the scientific community for reliably interpreting complex mixtures of low-template DNA (the sample in question). Moreover, both TWGDAM and the DNA Advisory Board stopped existing in 2000.
The Court of Appeals re-traced the history of DNA in Maryland and held that the FBI’s QAS standards were satisfied and allowed the results to be admitted.
DNA- QAS- The FBI’s Quality Assurance Standards (QAS) were put forth by the DNA Advisory Board in 1998-99. The QAS consists of two sets of standards: Quality Assurance Standards for Forensic DNA Testing Laboratories and Quality Assurance Standards for Convicted Offender DNA Databasing Laboratories.
The CoA held that even though neither of the boards existed, the QAS lived on as “standards established” by them. And so certification that the analysis was validated by these standards allowed the DNA analysis into evidence without a Frye-Reed hearing.