Court Opinion

ID: 9514714
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:51:22.900498+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:06:20.376571
License: Public Domain

AMUNDSON, Justice
(dissenting).
[¶ 180.] I respectfully dissent as to the following issues.
[¶ 181.] 6. Whether the trial court abused its discretion in admitting a belated report by State’s soil expert, and in failing to conduct a Daubert admissibility hearing on the soil expert’s testimony.
[¶ 182.] In Daubert v. Merrell Dow Phamaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 592-93, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 2794, 125 L.Ed.2d 469, 480 (1993), the United States Supreme Court established specific standards for admission of expert scientific testimony. Recently, the Daubert gate-keeping decision was expanded to apply to “ ‘technical’ and ‘other specialized’ ” expert testimony, as well as testimony from scientific experts. See Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael, 526 U.S. 137, 141, 119 S.Ct. 1167, 1171, 143 L.Ed.2d 238, 249 (1999) (citing Fed.R.Evid. 702). See also Estate of Dokken, 2000 SD 9, ¶ 51, 604 N.W.2d 487, 500 (Amundson, J., concurring specially) (quoting Kumho as expanding the Daubert gate-keeping function). This Court recognized in Kuper v. Lincoln-Union Electric Co., 1996 SD 145, ¶ 41, 557 N.W.2d 748, 760, that “when the trial court is ruling on the admissibility of an expert opinion, the trial court needs to exercise its gatekeeping function” to determine that the opinion has a reliable foundation and is relevant to the case at hand. To exercise its gatekeeping function, the trial court must determine both the reliability and the relevancy of the expert’s testimony. See id.
[¶ 183.] In United States v. Carroll, 2000 WL 45870, *8 (E.D.La.) (quotation omitted), the United States District Court addressed the Daubert and Kumho reliability prong and noted that Kumho “does not require district courts to reinvent the wheel every time expert testimony is offered in court.” However, this does not allow the trial court to sit idly by and automatically admit an expert’s testimony. As the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals recently stated in United States v. Velarde, 214 F.3d 1204, 1209 (10th Cir.2000), “[w]hile we recognize that the trial court is accorded gteat latitude in determining how to make Daubert reliability findings before admitting expert testimony, Kumho and Daubert make it clear that the court must, on the record, make some kind of reliability determination.” (Emphasis added).
[¶ 184.] In interpreting the court’s reliability determination under Kumho, the court in Bacardi & Co., Ltd. v. New York Lighter Co., Inc., 2000 WL 298915, *3 (E.D.N.Y.) (quotation omitted), concluded,
[t]he fact that [the expert witnesses] are educated and experienced in their respective fields, however, does not end the inquiry into reliability. Rather, the Court also must consider whether the experts “employ[ ] in the courtroom the same level of intellectual rigor that characterizes the practice of an expert in the relevant field.”
[¶ 185.] In the present case, John Weh-renberg, a retired professor of geology who specializes in forensic examinations of soils, submitted a report concluding that the soil sample taken from the left front fender of Moeller’s pickup was similar to a soil sample that he took from the crime scene. The justification for Wehrenberg’s determination was the existence of a mineral called “gahnite” which is a “very rare” mineral. Wehrenberg’s results were not the basis of some geological forensic test, but rather, were determined by a “visual inspection.”19 Prior to Wehren-*467berg’s testimony, Moeller requested a Daubert hearing to determine the reliability of Wehrenberg’s reasoning and methodology in concluding that the mineral was gahnite. The trial court denied Moeller’s request, concluding that based upon his qualifications and our prior decision in State v. Moeller, 1996 SD 60, ¶ 92, 548 N.W.2d 465, 486, the evidence tendered by Wehrenberg was admissible.20
[¶ 186.] In concluding that no Daubert hearing was required to determine the reliability of Wehrenberg’s testimony, the majority opinion would hold that because an expert says it is gahnite, it must be gahnite. It is not enough to rely on an expert’s self-proclaimed determination, more is required to determine the reliability of the expert’s results. See e.g., American Tourmaline Fields v. International Paper Co., 1999 WL 242690, *5 (N.D.Tex.1999) (citing Black v. Food Lion, Inc., 171 F.3d 308 (5th Cir.1999) (noting that expert’s self-proclaimed accuracy is insufficient)).
[¶ 187.] To allow an expert to testify that this rare mineral existed at the crime scene and on the defendant’s wheel well without any determination as to the reliability of the expert’s result, reasoning or methodology is a clear violation of the trial court’s gatekeeping function. I cannot condone the acceptance of an expert’s testimony based solely upon his own self-proclaimed accuracy.21 At the very least, a reliability determination must be made on the record to allow this Court to adequately execute its appellate role. This was not done here and I would hold that the trial court erred in refusing to hold a Daubert hearing to make such a determination.
[¶ 188.] The State, in oral arguments before this Court, argued that this issue is insignificant. In a capital murder case, is anything insignificant? I would say no, especially when State hires an expert and later utilizes the evidence in its closing *468arguments. Any argument that this issue is insignificant is zany at best. It might have been insignificant in Moeller I in view of the fact it was not a major point, but there must have been some significance of the testimony in Moeller //-otherwise, why would this expert’s testimony have focused on the rarity of gahnite in Moeller II.
[¶ 189.] 12. Whether Moeller’s sentence of death was lawfully imposed.
[¶ 190.] I again adopt my dissent filed in State v. Rhines, 1996 SD 55, 548 N.W.2d 415.
[¶ 191.] This is an ominous task to undertake based upon the end result of proportionality review. In performing this statutorily mandated function, this Court has to determine whether or not the death sentence in South Dakota is being disproportionately imposed in similar cases. I submit that the awesome responsibility of this Court in performing such a review requires that we consider a much more extensive universe of cases then contained in the majority opinion. An example being, State v. VanEngel, CR91-2045, which is a case in our judicial system where the defendant was charged with the murder, kidnapping and rape of a twelve-year old Argus Leader newspaper carrier and was ultimately sentenced to life imprisonment. Therefore, in order to really determine whether the death sentence is being disproportionately applied in South Dakota, all cases eligible for the death penalty have to be reviewed to determine if the death penalty in South Dakota is being imposed fairly and uniformly and not in an arbitrary fashion.

. The testimony cited in the majority decision leaves out a critical aspect of what this witness said and namely:
*467Q. (Moeller’s Attorney): When you take out the minerals that are ... common to any place east of the Rockies and one would expect to find nearly anywhere in South Dakota how many points of comparison were there that were of substantial interest to you?
A. (Wehrenberg): Well, in terms of the mineral grains themselves there was, certainly with the hornblende was the significant one, the rutile, biotite, there is a mineral that I tentatively identified as gahnite which is a rather rare mineral which I found in both samples. And that, that gahnite could conceivable be an individuating mineral if I knew more about the distribution of gahnite in this region. I don’t know that, though, however. (Emphasis added to depict the deleted testimony by the majority opinion.)
Wehrenberg testified at the first trial that he did not know and his testimony at the second trial does not set forth any additional work done by this witness to tell this reader why he now knows.

. At the conclusion of the trial court hearing on the admissibility of this new insignificant opinion involving this rare mineral, the trial court held as follows:
THE COURT: Okay, And I think my view of the Daubert standard is somewhat more liberal than the Frye standard under which this was admitted. I'm going to find it is admissible based upon the qualifications that he's shown and the ruling of the Supreme Court already in regard to the evidence tendered by him.
In Moeller I, there was no determination under Daubert of reliability and here, there was also no reliability as to the existence of this rare mineral. Even in a capital murder case with the deplorable facts involved here, it still remains the duty of the courts to determine that testimony of paid experts is reliable and not just rely on credentials.

. In preparing for the second trial, this expert wrote a letter on April 7, 1997, to Jeff Masten, Director of Research at RMA Research in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, making the following response to the question of “how rare is gahnite:”
[[Image here]]
Hence, gahnite must be very rare.
[[Image here]]
Other physical aspects of the mineral are more suggestive of gahnite than common spinel.
This fuzzy response certainly does not equal reliability without further testing.