Opinion ID: 1347716
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: issues

Text: CONCLUSION. We find no abuse of the trial court's discretion in admitting PGM testing results. There are tests to determine the phosphoglucomutase (PGM) type in blood samples. Dr. Blake conducted the PGM test in this case and got a weak result which he interpreted with caution. The PGM result was not factored into the probability statistics introduced to the jury, but was used only to show that the results of the test did not eliminate the victim as the person whose blood was on the Defendant's shoelaces. [8] The defense does not challenge the PGM test under a Frye analysis; it argues that the test results should have been excluded under ER 702. As noted above, the determination of whether expert testimony is admissible under ER 702 is within the discretion of the trial court; unless there has been an abuse of discretion, this court will not disturb the trial court's decision. [24] The defense argues that isoelectric focusing is the manner PGM testing is done now instead of by the conventional method. The defense brief states that Dr. Schanfield testified that the preferred method to type PGM is isoelectric focusing. In fact, what Dr. Schanfield testified to is that isoelectric focusing is more sensitive, but he also testified that conventional subtyping is primarily used in crime labs, and that both are used and that both can detect the subtypes. The defense brief also states that Dr. Schanfield testified that the PGM result was uninterpretable and inconclusive. In fact, he testified that he probably would have reached the same result as Dr. Blake (the forensic scientist who conducted the test), but that he was unable to reach a result looking at the photograph alone. He specifically denied he had said his laboratory would have called the result an uninterpreted or inconclusive result. The defense also relies on the testimony of defense expert Dr. Bakken, who criticized the manner in which Dr. Blake conducted the PGM test. Again, as we explained in Cauthron and in Kalakosky, alleged infirmities in the performance of a test usually go to the weight of the evidence, not to its admissibility. [25] In this case, the defense expert had never conducted a PGM test. Mr. Chan of the Washington State Patrol testified that he had been conducting PGM tests for 10 years and that he had reviewed Dr. Blake's PGM test results and would probably come to the same conclusion. Dr. Blake, who performed the PGM test in this case, had conducted thousands of PGM tests and explained that it was one of the standard conventional genetic marker tests done in all crime labs that do serological examinations. From our review of the record, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the results of the PGM test. In his pro se brief, the Defendant argues that the burden of proof was unconstitutionally shifted when the prosecuting attorney asked defense expert witnesses whether they had retested or conducted tests on the forensic samples. When this issue arose at trial, the trial court ruled that the State's questions regarding whether the various experts had tested the evidence were permissible, but questions whether they could have conducted tests were improper. The trial court therefore gave a curative instruction regarding the burden of proof. The trial court told the jury: I have sustained an objection to the State's last question. You are instructed to disregard it. Every Defendant in a criminal case is presumed to be innocent. This presumption continues throughout the entire trial, unless you find during your deliberations that it has been overcome by the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. The State as plaintiff has the burden of proving each element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. The defendant has no burden of proving a reasonable doubt exists, and no burden to produce any evidence. [26] Any possible implication that the Defendant had the burden of proof was corrected by this instruction regarding the presumption of innocence and the State's burden of proof. While it is questionable whether asking scientific experts whether they did, or could have, conducted duplicate testing is error at all, [27] in this case any possible error in confusing the jury as to the burden of proof was cured by the trial court's simultaneous curative instructions. [28] [9] The prosecuting attorney made a brief comment in closing that [t]he hypothesis of the defense's consultants is, destroy the evidence, the scientific evidence of the state. And we can do that by making assumptions, by never calling anybody, never doing any tests in this case. [29] No contemporaneous objection was made. When the defense subsequently made a motion for a mistrial based on this comment, the trial court offered to again give a cautionary instruction to the jury, but that offer was refused by the defense. Where improper argument is claimed, the defense bears the burden of establishing the impropriety of the prosecuting attorney's comments as well as their prejudicial effect. Reversal is not required if the error could have been obviated by a curative instruction, which the defense did not request. The failure to object to a prosecuting attorney's improper remark constitutes a waiver of such error unless the remark is deemed to be so flagrant and ill-intentioned that it evinces an enduring and resulting prejudice that could not have been neutralized by an admonition to the jury. [30] The defense here has neither satisfied the burden of showing the impropriety of the comment or any resulting prejudice. In light of the repeated correct instructions regarding the State's burden of proof, no prejudice has been shown. In summary, we conclude that the PCR DNA testing results were properly admitted pursuant to the majority opinion in State v. Russell, 125 Wn.2d 24, 882 P.2d 747 (1994) and ER 702. Gamma marker testing, and the technique used in this case, are generally accepted in the scientific community and meet the Frye standard for admissibility in Washington and there is no violation of ER 702. The phosphoglucomutase (PGM) analysis was properly admitted under ER 702.