Court Opinion

ID: 9703908
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:12:17.194137+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:52.927185
License: Public Domain

WOLLMAN, Justice
(concurring specially).
I agree that the conviction should be affirmed. However, I do not agree that the trial court erred in allowing Dr. Gaines to testify about the thin layer chromatogram test. I am not sure from the record that defendant ever specifically called to the court’s attention as a ground for the objection the claim that the alleged known sample of marihuana had never been properly authenticated. Moreover, after Dr. Gaines testified that he had obtained the standard sample of marihuana from Mr. Frasch, he was asked by defense counsel: “Now, have you examined that standard to determine in your own mind whether it is or is not a cannabis plant?,” to which Dr. Gaines replied, “Yes, I have looked at it microscopically. I use it as my standard to compare to unknowns.” I think that the only fair inference to be drawn from this testimony is that Dr. Gaines had satisfied himself that the standard sample did in fact consist of marijuana.
I would hold that the standard sample of marihuana was sufficiently authenticated as being marihuana to justify the trial court’s overruling defendant’s general objection of lack of proper foundation and lack of showing that the tests were reliable, just as this court held that the handwriting sample in question had been sufficiently identified in the case of State v. Ballard, 72 S.D. 293, 33 N.W.2d 339.
I am authorized to state that Justice COLER joins in this special concurrence.