Opinion ID: 1210687
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Refusal to Allow Further Testing

Text: The district court refused to allow further EDTA testing after Dr. Ballard and Dr. Siuzdak made their reports, and after Dr. Siuzdak withdrew his report on the ground of asserted contamination. If the piece of Sample 1 tested by Dr. Siuzdak contained Cooper's blood, as Dr. Maddox and Mr. Myers thought it did, and if Dr. Siuzdak's finding of an extremely high level of EDTA in his piece of Sample 1 is valid, there is no question that Cooper's blood was planted on the t-shirt. The district court refused to allow further testing despite the fact that Dr. Siuzdak and Dr. Ballard still have sufficient amounts of the samples provided to them to perform further testing. In light of the high level of EDTA detected by Dr. Siuzdak on his piece of Sample 1, and in light of the unexplored nature of Dr. Siuzdak's belief that there was contamination in his laboratory, it was unreasonable not to pursue further testing.