NCJ Number
211288
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 50 Issue: 5 Dated: September 2005 Pages: 1154-1163
Date Published
September 2005
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This paper discusses the current scientific evidence standards of the 50 States and the District of Columbia and the impact of the standard on the acceptance of scientific testimony as evidence handed down by the United States Supreme Court in 1993, known as the Daubert standard.
Abstract
On June 28, 1993, the United States Supreme Court handed down the standard that was to be followed from that date forward in determining whether particular scientific testimony was to be accepted as evidence in the Federal courts of the United States. The standard became known as the Daubert standard. This paper examines how many of the states have changed their respective scientific-evidence admissibility standards under the influence of the United States Supreme Court’s 1993 decision. The States are classified into 3 categories based on the definition of what constitutes a Daubert State: (1) Frye States (15 States, 10 with codified evidence rules patterned after the Federal Rules of Evidence) (FRE); (2) Daubert States (24 with FRE-based rules); and (3) non-Frye/non-Daubert States (9 States, 7 with FRE-based rules). The paper emphasizes the degree to which the various States required scientific evidence to be reliable and how they required the assessment of reliability to be made. In addition, it emphasizes the degree to which States that rely entirely or nearly entirely on rules of evidence similar to the original FRE 702 lean strongly toward the admission rather than the exclusion of forensic science testimony. Tables, references