Opinion ID: 1595830
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: ConfrontationDNA testimony

Text: Smith first asserts that the State violated the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United State Constitution when it failed to present the biologists who performed the DNA tests on the known sample taken from Smith and the unknown semen sample taken from the victim's shirt. According to Smith, this highly significant forensic evidence required cross-examination of the person(s) who conducted the actual tests. During trial, the State instead presented the testimony of the FBI team supervisor, a forensic DNA examiner who interpreted the data, formulated the conclusions, and prepared the official report. In evaluating whether a Sixth Amendment violation occurred, it is essential to examine the role of the team supervisor in the evaluation of the semen sample found on the victim's shirt. During a proffer, the supervisor explained her role as the manager of a DNA-analysis team as follows: I determine what items of [sic] exams will be conducted on which items. And I have the biologists who actually do[ ] the bench work for me. I then draw the conclusions, interpret their results and write the report and then testify, if needed. When further asked to explain her duties as a team supervisor, she explained: I manage the case, the case comes in, it gets assigned to me to be the DNA or serology manager. By that it means that I am in charge of talking with the contributors, determining what items will be worked. Then from there determining what stains will be worked. If the biologists have a question, they, you know, they can always come and talk to me about what exams to do and if further testing needs to be done. When asked if she interprets the results of the tests conducted by the biologists on her team, the supervisor responded, Yes, I do. I draw all the interpretations and all the conclusions based on their work an example would be if they test for blood, they will write the results of the test, but then it is my interpretation that says blood is there on that item of evidence. (Emphasis supplied.) She also testified that this protocol is standard for the FBI serology/DNA lab. The supervisor also explained that the biologists on her team make notes and keep records of every test that they complete on a sample, that the notes become part of the file in the case, and that she uses the notes to reach her conclusions and prepare the final report. The supervisor testified that she was the individual who compared the DNA sample taken from the victim's shirt to that of Smith and determined that these specimens matched at all thirteen relevant locations on the DNA strand. She was also the individual who calculated the probability of selecting an unrelated individual at random from the pertinent sample group who would have the same DNA profile as that found on the shirt. In Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004), the United States Supreme Court held that testimonial out-of-court statements that are introduced against a defendant violate the Confrontation Clause unless the declarant is unavailable and the defendant had a prior meaningful opportunity to cross-examine that witness. See id. at 68-69, 124 S.Ct. 1354. Smith contends that this case presents the same issue as that confronted in State v. Johnson, 982 So.2d 672 (Fla.), cert. dismissed, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 28, 171 L.Ed.2d 930 (2008), and that Johnson should control the outcome here. In Johnson, this Court held that a report prepared by a Florida Department of Law Enforcement analyst, which established the illegal nature of the substances that Johnson possessed, was admitted in violation of Crawford where the analyst who prepared the report did not testify during trialinstead, the report was introduced through her supervisor. See 982 So.2d at 673-74. We concluded that the report was testimonial in nature because the report there was clearly prepared in anticipation of trial and designed to establish an element of the crime. See id. at 680. An accusatory document such as the report there should only be admissible where the preparer is unavailable and the defendant had a prior opportunity to conduct cross-examination of the person who prepared the report. See id. at 680-81. Similarly, in State v. Belvin, 986 So.2d 516, 518 (Fla.2008), we held that admission of a breath-test affidavit violated the Confrontation Clause where the technician who performed the test did not testify during trial. Thus, in each of these cases, the person who prepared the report of the relevant results did not testify. See also Johnson v. State, 929 So.2d 4, 6 (Fla. 2d DCA 2005) (noting that the supervisor did not conduct this particular test, but he was able to testify about the general procedures used by FDLE in preparing such reports). We have carefully considered both Florida and federal cases, and we conclude that the instant case is distinguishable from both Johnson and Belvin. Here, it was the supervisor in her capacity as the head of an FBI DNA-analysis team who evaluated the raw test results obtained by the biologists on her team and compared the DNA sample found on the victim's shirt to the sample taken from Smith. She was the person who concluded that Smith's DNA matched the DNA from the shirt and calculated the probability of a random individual from the pertinent sample group submitting a DNA sample that matched the sample obtained from the shirt. Thus, although the FBI team supervisor did not perform each actual test on the material found on the shirt and the buccal swab taken from Smith, she was the person who interpreted the data obtained from the testing and formulated the conclusions that incriminated Smith in the sexual battery. Thus, while the results that the supervisor obtained in this case were indubitably testimonial in nature, she was present at trial and subject to cross-examination with regard to those results. At least two federal courts have held that the Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause does not require an expert to have performed the actual laboratory work to permissibly testify with regard to conclusions that he or she has drawn from those results. In United States v. Moon, 512 F.3d 359, 362 (7th. Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 39, 172 L.Ed.2d 19, and cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 40, 172 L.Ed.2d 19 (2008), the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the Confrontation Clause does not forbid the use of raw data produced by scientific instruments, though the interpretation of those data may be testimonial. (Emphasis supplied.) Similarly, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a Confrontation Clause violation did not occur where the chief toxicologist of a lab reviewed the data from tests conducted by technicians at the lab and issued a report based upon that data where the toxicologist testified at trial with regard to his conclusions. See United States v. Washington, 498 F.3d 225, 228 (4th Cir.2007) (While Dr. Levine did not see the blood sample and did not conduct any of the tests himself, three lab technicians operating under his protocols and supervision conducted the tests and then presented the raw data from the tests to him.). We find the rationale followed by the federal courts in Moon and Washington to be persuasive with regard to the challenge raised by Smith. Accordingly, even though the FBI team supervisor did not actually perform the testing to extract DNA samples from the shirt and from Smith, her testimony did not implicate the Confrontation Clause because she, as supervisor, formulated her own conclusions from the raw data produced by the biologists under her supervision and control on her team, and she was subject to cross-examination with regard to those conclusions. [12] Accordingly, relief on this claim is denied.