Opinion ID: 2056377
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: The Impact Of Scientific Evidence

Text: From the Supreme Court down, appellate courts have been mindful of the persuasive power of DNA evidence that inculpates or exculpates defendants from criminal activity. Appellate courts have considered such DNA evidence in a postconviction context even when the crime of which the defendant was exculpated was not the same crime that resulted in the challenged conviction. Exculpatory DNA evidence has special impact when the crime was sexual assault. The Supreme Court analyzed this in House v. Bell, 547 U.S. 518, 540, 126 S.Ct. 2064, 2079, 165 L.Ed.2d 1 (2006). House was convicted in state court of murder and sentenced to death, based in part on the aggravating factor that the murder was committed in the course of a rape. After filing a habeas petition challenging the evidence used against him at trial, House's conviction was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In reversing the Sixth Circuit, the Supreme Court noted that in direct contradiction of evidence presented at trial, DNA testing ... established that the semen on [the victim's] nightgown and panties came from her husband ... not from House. Id at 540, 126 S.Ct. at 2078-79. The State argued on appeal that the new evidence was immaterial because at the guilt phase, neither sexual contact nor motive were elements of the offense. The Supreme Court disagreed and considered the new disclosure of central importance. Id., 126 S.Ct. at 2079. Justice Kennedy wrote: From beginning to end the case is about who committed the crime. When identity is in question, motive is key. The point, indeed, was not lost on the prosecution, for it introduced the evidence and relied on it in the final guilt-phase closing argument. Referring to evidence at the scene, the prosecutor suggested that House committed, or attempted to commit, some indignity on [the victim] that neither she nor any mother on that road would want to do with Mr. House. Particularly in a case like this where the proof was, as the State Supreme Court observed, circumstantial, we think a jury would have given this evidence great weight. Quite apart from providing proof of motive, it was the only forensic evidence at the scene that would link House to the murder. Law and society, as they ought to do, demand accountability when a sexual offense has been committed, so not only did this evidence link House to the crime; it likely was a factor in persuading the jury not to let him go free. At sentencing, moreover, the jury came to the unanimous conclusion, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the murder was committed in the course of a rape or kidnaping. The alleged sexual motivation relates to both those determinations. This is particularly so given that, at the sentencing phase, the jury was advised that House had a previous conviction for sexual assault. A jury informed that fluids on [the victim's] garments could have come from House might have found that House trekked the nearly two miles to the victim's home and lured her away in order to commit a sexual offense. By contrast a jury acting without the assumption that the semen could have come from House would have found it necessary to establish some different motive, or, if the same motive, an intent far more speculative. When the only direct evidence of sexual assault drops out of the case, so, too, does a central theme in the State's narrative linking House to the crime. In that light, furthermore, House's odd evening walk and his false statements to authorities, while still potentially incriminating, might appear less suspicious. Id. at 540-41, 126 S.Ct. at 2079 (citations omitted). The Supreme Court's analysis is useful in evaluating the impact of Thompson's DNA evidence because it brings home the realities of juror perception when physical evidence implicating rape is present in murder cases. See also Watkins v. Miller, 92 F.Supp.2d 824, 838 (S.D.Ind.2000) (rejecting the State's contention that because the defendant was not convicted of rape, DNA evidence that excluded him as the depositor of sperm found on the victim did not prove his innocence with respect to murder because the argument may be technically correct as an abstract legal proposition, but it is beside the point in evaluating the significance of the DNA evidence in light of both all the other evidence in the case linking the rape and the murder and the prosecution's use of that evidence). Exculpatory DNA evidence regarding a sexual assault that was not introduced at the defendant's first trial was also evaluated in a recent Supreme Court of Kentucky case, Bedingfield v. Commonwealth, 260 S.W.3d 805 (Ky.2008). In Bedingfield, a young female, wearing only a t-shirt, approached two police officers and stated that she had been raped and directed the officers to the residence where she claimed the rape occurred. The police apprehended Bedingfield as he was exiting the residence and the victim identified him as the perpetrator, after which she underwent a post-rape medical examination. Bedingfield introduced postconviction DNA evidence which conclusively excluded him as the source of the semen found in the rape kit. Upon a motion for a new trial, the trial court held that this evidence would not likely change the outcome of the trial with a reasonable certainty. The Kentucky standard for determining whether a new trial is warranted based upon newly discovered evidence is whether such evidence carries a significance which would with reasonable certainty, change the verdict or that it would probably change the result if a new trial should be granted. Bedingfield, 260 S.W.3d at 809-10. The Supreme Court of Kentucky held that the trial court abused its discretion in denying a new trial because of the permeating and saturating effect that the evidence, which was construed to identify Appellant as the source of the semen, played in enhancing the viability and credibility of all of the Commonwealth's arguments. Id. at 813 (emphasis added, italics in original). The Court also observed: [T]he presence of sperm which DNA testing proves did not belong to Appellant does not exonerate him; however, the presence of this new evidence does cast a long shadow and assuredly merits consideration in the form a new trial. It cannot be overlooked that in Appellant's initial trial, all other arguments were enhanced and corroborated by the supposition that the sperm found belonged to Appellant. Indeed, this theme was central to the Commonwealth's prosecution. Id. at 814-15 (emphasis added). The Court granted Bedingfield a new trial. Although the new DNA evidence in Bedingfield was more directly exculpatory than the new DNA evidence here, because Bedingfield was convicted of rape, we find the Kentucky court's analysis of how the DNA evidence could have affected the jury's assessment of other evidence to be helpful. See also State v. Passino, 161 Vt. 515, 640 A.2d 547, 552 (1994) ([D]efendant was considerably prejudiced by preclusion of the exculpatory DNA evidence .... [which] would have rebutted the State's evidence more effectively, or at least would have created doubt regarding defendant's connection to the scene.).