Opinion ID: 2064797
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admissibility of Chemist's Certificate

Text: Defendant argues that the presiding justice erred in admitting in evidence a sworn chemist's certificate establishing that the substance taken from defendant was marijuana over defendant's objection that the certificate constituted inadmissible hearsay. The court's resolution of this issue turns on the proper interpretation of 17-A M.R.S.A. § 1112(1) (Supp.1978), which creates a statutory exception to the hearsay rule for sworn chemist's certificates that establish the content of substances submitted to qualified laboratories for analysis. Section 1112(1) provides in full: A laboratory which receives a drug or substance from a law enforcement officer or agency for analysis under this chapter shall, if it is capable of so doing, analyze the same as requested, and shall issue a certificate stating the results of such analysis. Such certificate, when duly signed and sworn to by a person certified as qualified for this purpose by the Department of Human Services under certification standards set by that department, shall be admissible in evidence in any court of the State of Maine, and shall be prima facie evidence that the composition and quality of the drug or substance is as stated therein, unless with 10 days written notice to the prosecution, the defendant requests that a qualified witness testify as to such composition and quality. (Emphasis added) Section 1112(1) appears in chapter 45 of the Maine Criminal Code, and defendant claims that the phrase under this chapter in the first sentence limits the application of the section to prosecutions for chapter 45 offenses. [4] Defendant was prosecuted for trafficking in prison contraband, a chapter 31 offense. We find no support for defendant's restrictive reading of section 1112. The only words imposing any limitation to trial of a chapter 45 offense appear in the first sentence in the phrase for analysis under this chapter. The reference plainly is to analysis of the drug or substance for purposes of determining its composition and quality under such sections of chapter 45 as section 1101 (Definitions) and section 1102 (Schedules W, X, Y and Z). The substance in the seized bag was analyzed to be marijuana, which is defined in section 1101(1) and is classified as a Schedule Z substance by section 1102(4)(B). The consequences of that analysis in court proceedings are determined at various other places in the statutes, both in and outside chapter 45 of the criminal code. The second sentence of section 1112 makes a statutory exception to the hearsay rule for a proceeding in any court of the State of Maine, in terms without limitation to a prosecution for a chapter 45 offense or even to a criminal prosecution. In the case at bar the prosecution is for an offense defined in chapter 31 of the criminal code proscribing the trafficking by a prison inmate in any ... thing which a person confined in official custody is prohibited by statute or regulation from... possessing. [5] 17-A M.R.S.A. § 756. Then, in turn, that element of the offense is made out, the State argues, by the fact that under 22 M.R.S.A. § 2383 (Supp.1978) [p]ossession of a usable amount of marijuana is a civil violation for which a forfeiture of not more than $200 may be adjudged. The legislature evinced no intention to restrict the use of its statutory hearsay exception to the very narrow limits urged by defendant. On the contrary, the beneficient purpose of avoiding needless waste of the chemist's time and effort is equally present whatever the type of proceeding involved. The inherent trustworthiness of the chemist's certificate, and the effectiveness of giving the party against whom it is to be offered an opportunity to require the chemist's presence, depend not at all on the nature of the criminal prosecution in which his certificate is offered in evidence. There is no conceivable reason for the legislature to limit its statutory hearsay exception in the way here urged by defendant. We hold that it has not done so.