Opinion ID: 73730
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Denbeaux’s Testimony

Text: Paul argues that the district court abused its discretion in not admitting Denbeaux’s rebuttal testimony. Specifically, Paul contends that if Ziegler’s testimony was admissible under rule 702, then Denbeaux’s testimony was also admissible pursuant to rule 702 because Denbeaux’s testimony was critical for the jury to understand the limitations of Ziegler’s testimony. The government asserts two grounds for excluding Denbeaux’s testimony: (1) Paul cannot show that Denbeaux was an expert on handwriting analysis; and (2) the court’s exclusion of Denbeaux’s testimony did not prejudice Paul. Denbeaux was not qualified to testify as an expert in handwriting analysis because he: (1) did not possess an acceptable degree of “knowledge”; (2) would not have assisted the jury; and (3) was not a qualified expert. Fed. R. Evid. 702. The record reflects that Denbeaux had no 9 skill, experience, training or education in the field of handwriting analysis. The record shows that Denbeaux has a law degree and that he is a law professor who teaches evidence. Before 1989, he reviewed the literature in the field of questioned document examinations, and then coauthored a law review article critical of forensic document examiners’ ability to reach the correct conclusion in questioned document examinations. See D. Michael Risinger, Mark Denbeaux and Michael J. Saks, Exorcism of Ignorance as a Proxy for Rational Knowledge: The Lessons of Handwriting Identification Expertise, 137 U. Pa. L. Rev. 731 (1989). His skill, experience, training and education as a lawyer did not make him any more qualified to testify as an expert on handwriting analysis than a lay person who read the same articles. At the time of the trial, Denbeaux had done virtually no further research or writing on the subject of the reliability of handwriting expertise since the University of Pennsylvania published his law review article in 1989. During cross-examination, he admitted that he was not a questioned documents examiner, had received no formal training in the field, had never attended seminars on handwriting analysis, had never worked in a questioned documents laboratory and was not a member of any professional organizations in the field. Further, because Denbeaux was not an expert on the limitations of handwriting analysis, the district court’s exclusion of his testimony did not prejudice Paul. Denbeaux’s background did not qualify him as an expert, and his knowledge of the subject matter is so limited that it was not an abuse of discretion for the district court to exclude his testimony under rule 702. See Fed. R. Evid. 702.